BATON ROUGE, La. — When LSU star Angel Reese grabbed women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey to hold her back from letting the referee have another earful after her ejection, Reese felt like she was going to need some help.
‘It was precious. She was pulling me back and she just finally said, ‘Kramer come help me,” Mulkey re-enacted and laughed. ‘She was calling for my son from the stands. It’s moments like that you’ll reflect back on when you retire.
‘Just fighting for my kid.’
With LSU up 41 points in the fourth quarter against Northwestern State on Sunday inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Mulkey did not agree with a charge called on junior forward Aneesah Morrow and stormed out onto the court to let ref Timothy Green know about it.
Green proceeded to tag Mulkey with a double technical, which calls for immediate ejection from game. LSU went on to win, 81-36, to earn its 11th consecutive victory.
‘He did the right thing, I’m not questioning that. In fact, I think I helped him. I said, ‘I’m not leaving you, you better toss me,’ or something like that,’ Mulkey said. ‘It was like he had no choice. But I appreciate officials that know what you’re trying to do out there. I don’t appreciate bad calls but it’s part of coaching.’
For Reese, she drew links to having a similar competitive drive as Mulkey, saying it was fun holding her coach back from the referee in the heat of the moment.
‘Me and Coach Mulkey have similar personalities in we like to win no matter the score,’ Reese said. ‘Of course she’s going to fight for us and we all fight for her. That moment was fun, and we knew she had our back and we had her back.’
The energy inside the arena was lacking prior to Mulkey getting tossed, and she said when she made it back to the coaches’ locker room that she had texts telling her she got a standing ovation upon her exit.
It wasn’t her first time being ejected from a basketball game, but her first time at LSU. Last season, she recalled during the SEC tournament how she tried to get ejected in her first season during the team’s loss to Kentucky but the referee didn’t oblige.
Mulkey didn’t agree with the charge call on Morrow on Sunday and, in the moment, felt like she needed to get rung.
‘It was time.’
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz.