The Kim Mulkey era of the LSU Tigers has been filled with complaints about the team not facing many very challenging teams before getting to SEC play, but that won’t be the case this time, as they just added one of the most fun games of the regular season.
On Thursday, ESPN announced its college basketball schedule for this year, which includes the Women’s Invitational on December 20. That will see the Tigers take on the UCONN Huskies in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena. The other game is the Virginia Cavaliers against the Kentucky Wildcats, which is nice, but it’s clear what the main event is going to be.
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One doesn’t need to look any further than the two coaches to know how epic this clash will be. It’s Kim Mulkey vs. Geno Auriemma, both among the most iconic leaders the sport has ever seen.
Mulkey was an established star long before she ever got to Baton Rouge, and she has done a fantastic job of rebuilding this program in record time, getting it to be one of the perennial contenders.
Auriemma has a 1,288-166 record as a head coach, has won the NCAA tournament 12 times, and has been leading the Huskies since 1985. Another person who needs no introduction.
It is Auriemma who holds the All-Time lead in the matchups between the coaches, but Mulkey has a chance to tie it this season as the series is 5-4 right now. The most recent matchup was in the Elite Eight round of the 2021 NCAA tournament, when UCONN squeaked by the Baylor Bears 69-67. Right after that is when Mulkey left for LSU.
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As for just straight up the Tigers against the Huskies, UCONN has control of that history with a 6-1 record. They haven’t played in 10 years, though. It has been nearly 20 years since LSU won this matchup.
The Tigers will certainly enter as the underdogs in this game again, as they transition into life after Flau’jae Johnson. They should still be a very good team, but they’ll be less feared than the Huskies have been just because of their history.
UCONN lost Azzi Fudd, but Auriemma is always able to reload immediately. They’ll once against enter the year as favorites thanks to the play of Sarah Strong on both ends of the court. It should be a very fun game no matter what, though, and good to see LSU face some adversity early in the season for a change.
