LSU head coach Kim Mulkey faced criticism for her in-game coaching decisions following the Tigers’ 94-87 loss to Iowa on Monday night, particularly regarding the defense against Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who scored 41 points in the victory.
On the latest episode of his “Nightcap” podcast with Chad Johnson, Shannon Sharpe voiced his disapproval of Mulkey’s tactics.
“Kim Mulkey did a terrible job at coaching because they did nothing to get the ball out of [Clark’s] hands,” Sharpe said. “Look at how UConn approached [USC guard] Juju Watkins [in the other Elite Eight game Monday]. She got the ball [and] they blitzed her … You mean to tell me, Caitlin Clark, who arguably is one of the greatest shooters in college history, you go under the screen?”
Sharpe later offered Mulkey some leeway, suggesting that she might have instructed her players to go over the screen, only for them to opt for the opposite approach during the game.
However, both Sharpe and ESPN’s Andraya Carter criticized Mulkey on First Take Tuesday for taking too long to assign Flau’jae Johnson as the primary defender on Clark, after initially matching up Hailey Van Lith and Last-Tear Poa against her for most of the game.
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“When you look at what she was able to do, and the fashion in which he was able to do it, and I don’t want to take anything from it, but I thought this was a horrible coaching job on Kim Mulkey,” Sharpe stated. “Because you had Hailey Van Lith, and she was the three S’s. She’s short. She’s slow. And she was sick. Flau’Jae Johnson, all year long, guarded the best perimeter player. You get into a game of this magnitude Stephen A, and you put Hailey Van Lith on her, who’s 5-foot-7, against the six-foot guard. She’s sick. They talked about it. She had to get an IV. So she’s been under the weather, and she’s slow.
“Flau’Jae Johnson is your best athlete on that side of the ball. And that’s not to say, that still might would have happened. Caitlin Clark might still would have got 41. She might have got 51. But I’m gonna put my best defense — I’m gonna do what I’ve done to get me there. Flau’Jae Johnson is your most athletic young lady on the court. She should have had the assignment, because that’s the assignment she had all year.”
In addition to her 41 points, including nine three-pointers, Clark also contributed 12 assists and seven rebounds.
Following the game, Mulkey acknowledged the difficulty in limiting Clark’s impact regardless of defensive strategies.
“There’s not a whole lot of strategy,” Mulkey conceded. “You got to guard her, nobody else seems able to guard her. We didn’t even guard her last year when we beat them. She’s just a generational player and she just makes everybody around her better. That’s what the great ones do.”
It’s always easy to play Monday Morning Quarterback.