SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2025

Kim Mulkey

Bob Starkey

Aneesah Morrow

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

LSU Lady Tigers

Postgame Press Conference

LSU 101, Florida 87

THE MODERATOR: We welcome LSU. We'll begin with questions for Aneesah.

Q. Seemed like you had something to prove tonight, setting a new school record. What was working so well for you?

ANEESAH MORROW: I would say I was kind of just being a little bit more calmer, letting the game come to me. I feel like it showed well tonight. I shot well from the field.

Q. Overall as an offense, you score over a hundred points, what was clicking?

ANEESAH MORROW: Just sharing the ball. Ball reversals. Being able to execute action, that's one thing we did tonight, is executing offensively for our sets.

Q. Having the adversity that this team has been through this season, not having your coach for almost a week, playing for her, is that a little bit more motivation in this tournament?

ANEESAH MORROW: Yeah, of course. Sometimes we do feel like the odds are against us and it's important to have each other's backs. We showed that all year. Being able to lift each other up and being able to encourage each other because sometimes we might be discouraged. Being able to lean on your sisters.

Q. In Florida's first game of the tournament, they gave up total 50 points to Auburn. You scored 53 in the first half. What would you say allowed you to take off so early?

ANEESAH MORROW: That was our mindset, to start fast. We knew they played two games. We knew eventually they would be fatigued because of those two games. Just being able to start fast and execute our offense.

Q. What did getting a win tonight do for y'all's confidence?

ANEESAH MORROW: It's always about the response. You can be complacent and just take it or just say I'm going to take another loss or work as hard as you can to achieve the goals we have set for our team.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Aneesah. We'll take questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, to have this team ready to roll without Kim, you taking the reins, to see them come out and play, what did it mean to you as y'all get ready for the NCAA tournament?

BOB STARKEY: Well, I think I've been given too much credit. I've been blessed on these few times where I had to take over to have a really, really good team. The better the players, the better the coach. Coach Mulkey has given me the blueprint.

Practices were nothing different whether she was there or whether she wasn't there. I really think the kids deserve the credit. Easily they could have been distracted, used some of this as excuses. I was just really proud of how they responded.

Q. Coach Mulkey, we'll keep you and your family in our thoughts and prayers. What did this week look like for you?

KIM MULKEY: I'm going to talk about Bob Starkey and I want you to print it and I want you to print it big.

This man deserves to be in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. I've been begging 'em for years. We have two associate head coaches that are in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, but not either one of them ever took a team on an interim basis to a Final Four. This man has done that. He's worked for Sue Gunter, he's worked for Chancellor, he's worked for tons of coaches.

For me to go take care of something personal for an entire week, I was where I was supposed to be. I told the president at Baylor years ago, if a decision has to be made between my family and basketball, that decision was made a long time ago.

He had our team ready to play. They responded to him. They poured water all over him. I mean that. A lot of coaches are not blessed to have a staff with a Bob Starkey on it. Why he is not already in the Hall of Fame is beyond me.

So what was your question?

Q. (No microphone.)

KIM MULKEY: My week was awful. My mind still isn't good. I don't feel good, first of all. But we all deal with death. I've dealt with a stillborn grandchild, but I was prepared for that. We're prepared for our parents, for our grandparents. It's the unexpected deaths that throw you for a loop.

I was where I was supposed to be. I'm very, very proud. But as I told our team many times, I've told them many times, we could drop dead on that sideline and you should be able to coach yourselves.

So I was very confident.

I'm going to go back to your original question to Aneesah. This team didn't lose confidence. Flau'Jae is not even playing and she's our leading scorer. I made a decision as a head coach to shut her down until the playoffs. We lose two back-to-back games. Whoop-de-doo. Whoop-de-doo.

We play a very good Texas team, ranked No. 1 in the country, great defense. They responded the way they do every game. It's just sometimes the other team makes a few more plays than we do.

But we're never going to be a team that doesn't have confidence. It's not in our DNA. I think Morrow broke Seimone Augustus' record. How cool is that? She was sitting on the sideline watching that. I was wondering why she wanted us to take her out early. No, I'm teasing (smiling).

Q. In terms of tonight being back on the court, what was the feeling like for you? Did it help you at all with the healing?

KIM MULKEY: No. No. I love this great game of basketball, but it's not more important than the time it takes to heal from an unexpected death. What I didn't want is to be a distraction, and I don't think I was. I think I was the biggest cheerleader. I was able to go back and sit on the middle of that bench and be able to communicate to players in a different capacity.

I wasn't coming in here and taking over. Are you kidding me? I told Bob before the game started, You are coaching tonight. You know what you've done all week to prepare our team. I'm going to be with a few suggestions. I would say a few things, send it down to him.

But no, no, no. Only time heals your heart.

Q. Coach Starkey, what helped you score so much tonight on offense?

BOB STARKEY: I just think our level of execution. I mean, it sounds like a very simplistic approach, but I think Coach Mulkey's philosophy is the way you practice is the way you play.

We've had some really good practices this week. Like I said, I'm really proud of the kids. Not having Coach Mulkey there, it was different for them. Learning to play without Flau'Jae was different. We worked on different combinations. They were just super locked in this week. They were easy to coach. It wasn't anything that I did. It was just them, I think, understanding that this is a great challenge and a great opportunity.

If you could have watched us practice the last three, four days, you would have saw the carryover. Nothing special done today that hadn't been done in practice. Hopefully that will be a good lesson moving forward as we advance in March. If we can put a series together in practice then we can put that type of level of execution out on the floor.

Q. Coach Starkey, you coached Seimone. Aneesah goes in there and breaks her record. What does it mean to see someone break someone who is a Hall of Famer?

BOB STARKEY: It means I'm the luckiest coach in the world. I've been blessed more than anybody I know to coach some amazing players.

The thing that I would say that makes me the proudest tonight is the happiest person in that locker room was Seimone. I mean, that's the kind of person she is.

But Nees is just a different kind of player. People ask me about Nees. I would say if you come to practice, you see the exact same level of intensity, warrior spirit every day. She doesn't know how not to go at that level.

She's undersized. She just battles every single day. So when something like tonight happens, as a coach, it makes you happy because that's what you preach. You preach to your kids, If you work hard, good things will happen. Nees is the poster child for that.

Q. Coach Starkey, are you going to basically do the same thing for tomorrow's game or is Coach Mulkey back?

BOB STARKEY: Well, I'm hoping Coach Mulkey is back. But certainly regardless, I'll be leaning on her a lot.

I don't want you to think that she just disappeared this week. There were a lot of conversations. She was involved in the game plan and all that. This was a Coach Mulkey win. I just got to stand up a little bit more than I usually do.

Q. What did you see from Mjracle tonight?

KIM MULKEY: Coach, let it rip.

BOB STARKEY: Mjracle, you see energy. I mean, she's very similar to Nees in that she has that one speed. She's so active. She's going to be able to guard a quality player on the other team. She's going to be able to rebound. The thing that we weren't expecting was her knocking a couple bombs down outside the arc.

I'll say this, she's a kid who works on her game. She does the un-required work. She comes to practice every day. But she's in the gym on her own or with Coach Seimone or somebody else working on her game. She's another kid you pull for. She just has great intensity, great energy, is a great teammate.

She's one of those kids you pull for.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.