Women’s Basketball: Here’s why Ragin’ Cajuns coach feels Kim Mulkey to LSU was a home-run hire for L

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Nov. 17, 2021

About two decades ago, Garry Brodhead got the ambitious idea of reaching out to Kim Mulkey for a helping hand.

Mulkey had just left Louisiana Tech to coach Baylor’s women’s basketball team.

“Me and my wife are running this huge national tournament,” Brodhead said. “I think we had 150 teams come in (to the Cajundome) for 10 days. It was going to create, like, $6-to-$8 million for the city of Lafayette.

“We needed a big-time speaker (for) the opening ceremony. … Me and my wife, as soon as we saw she took the job we looked at each other and we said, ‘Can we get Kim Mulkey?’ ”

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Twenty-one years at Baylor and three NCAA championships later, Tickfaw native Mulkey is in her first season as LSU’s coach. Lafayette native Brodhead is in his 10th at UL.

The two face off for the first time as head coaches when LSU (1-1) visits UL (2-0) on Thursday (6 p.m.) at the Cajundome.

When they do, it won’t be as strangers.

“I made a call (back then), and I’m like, ‘Kim, we need a favor,’ ” said Brodhead, who specialized in the pole vault at UL. “And, man, she was just like, ‘I’m in. I’m coming to Louisiana. I want to come back. I want to tell them I’m at Baylor,’ and all that.

“So she flew in in a jet; I picked her up at the airport, and she spent probably six or seven days here recruiting after she spoke.”

Brodhead’s respect for Mulkey sky-high

Mulkey, who played point guard at Louisiana Tech and was an assistant there under legendary coach Leon Barmore, stayed put at Baylor until LSU lured her away with an eight-year, $23.75 million contract.

LSU opened with an easy win over Nicholls, but the Tigers lost 88-74 Sunday to Florida Gulf Coast.

Brodhead, went from helping his late wife Andrea run the Acadiana Biddy Basketball program to coaching the Acadiana Stars AAU girls team, winning one girls state championship and nine district titles at Teurlings Catholic High, and spending five seasons as McNeese’s associate women’s head coach before UL hired him in 2012.

During the 2011-12 season in which the Lady Bears went 40-0, Brodhead and McNeese were among Baylor’s many victims.

He and Mulkey frequently spent time together on the recruiting trail over the years.

“She’s one of the promoters for women’s sports, and I always respected that about her,” said Brodhead, whose Ragin’ Cajuns opened with a win over Texas A&M-Kingsville and won 73-69 at Rice behind Brandi Williams’ 24 points Saturday. “She’s a competitor, not just for herself but the whole sport.”

UL coach applauds bold LSU hire

It’s why Brodhead feels LSU made a home-run hire to replace the fired Nikki Fargas.

“You’ve got to give the (athletic director) at LSU (Scott Woodward) a lot of credit to do what he did, man,” Brodhead said. “I mean, he didn’t hold back. He went after the best he could get for his situation.

“You know, LSU gets bashed about a lot of things – but that’s one thing that I would not bash them for, is they are committed to women’s basketball. To me, if you’re gonna play it why not? So, it’s exciting to be able to get them to come in.”

The game is LSU’s only true non-conference road contest this season and just the seventh game in a series the Tigers lead 6-0.

All prior meetings but one, an LSU win in December 2018, have been held in Baton Rouge. This one was scheduled before LSU hired Mulkey. But, based on prior experience, Brodhead suspects Mulkey would approve.

“I’m all about not just growing the sport here at UL, but in Louisiana, in the South,” he said.

“She’s the type of person who wants to come here and help us to grow it also.”