LSU Actually Did Not Eat Too Many Cupcakes Before Dinner

When we last caught up with No. 12 LSU and declared them schedule merchants in for a rude awakening, the Tigers were reeling from an 0-2 start to SEC play and looking ahead to a game against undefeated No. 2 Texas, an even tougher opponent than the Kentucky and Vanderbilt teams that had already beaten them. Head coach Kim Mulkey had supplied a simple diagnosis: “We’re not tough enough,” she told reporters. But on Sunday, LSU’s band of athletic guards rediscovered the ways of Mulkeyball. In an ugly 70-65 home win, they handed the Longhorns their first loss of the season and also handed me the 10,000th loss of my blogging career.

Writing from a distance and in relative obscurity, I can at least suffer my defeat in peace. Not everyone is so lucky. For someone who decries newspapers, Mulkey has a remarkable faculty for remembering every single thing any journalist has ever written about her. Reed Darcey, the LSU women’s basketball beat writer at the New Orleans Advocate, pointed out after the Kentucky loss that LSU had yet to beat an SEC opponent ranked in the top 12 of the AP poll since Mulkey was hired in 2021. “They're now 0-8 in those games. Five losses to South Carolina, two to Texas and one to Kentucky,” he posted.