"I said, 'Am I about to die?' & she goes, 'Oh mom, don’t say that'": When Kim Mulkey revealed hilarious exchange with daughter after LSU’s NCAA title

After LSU clinched the 2023 NCAA championship, Kim Mulkey couldn't help but ask a hilarious and emotional question to her daughter, Makenzie Fuller. The Tigers defeated the favorite, Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, in the title game 102-85.

It was the highest-scoring finale in women's basketball history and marked the program's first national trophy—all within the second year of Mulkey's leadership. The coach had already achieved national glory with Baylor, where she led a Bears team that also had Fuller on it.

After Mulkey's national championship with the Tigers, she shared the private conversation she had with Fuller in a May 2023 interview with WBRZ, highlighting the surreal nature of the school's triumph.

"I said, 'Makenzie, you and I have cut many nets down, you were on my undefeated team,' and I said, 'Am I about to die?' and she goes, 'Oh, Mom, don't say that,'" Mulkey said (at 1:40).

"I said, 'This is nuts, we did it quickly at Baylor - within five years. But come on now, two years?' We just got a good laugh, we cried, and yeah, I did, I asked her that, I still ask her that."

Kim Mulkey's leadership at LSU marked a historic moment for women's basketball. Despite a proud program and players like Sylvia Fowles and Seimone Augustus coming out of the school, the Tigers had never been on the mountaintop.

Mulkey changed that with a rapid turnaround and established the university as a consistent contender afterward. Since the coach is a Louisiana native, winning an NCAA title in front of the home crowd and family also added personal significance.

Kim Mulkey shook salaries in women's college basketball

When Kim Mulkey left Baylor for LSU in 2021, she garnered the title of the highest-paid coach in women's college basketball. She surpassed UConn's Geno Auriemma and South Carolina's Dawn Staley in her championship season, earning $3.26 million that year. Both Auriemma and Staley earned $3.1 million.

Mulkey's success with the Tigers showed that investments in women's basketball pay off significantly. In a 2024 interview with USA Today, ESPN analyst Debbie Antonelli credited the school's athletic director, Scott Woodward, for the same.

"I call it Mulkey Mania," Antonelli said. "I credit Scott Woodward, he paid her a big, fat salary - he invested in the infrastructure and knew she would deliver.

"It's remarkable what they've done, but probably even he didn’t know it was going to be this good this quickly."

Thanks to her impact, Kim Mulkey is no longer the highest-paid coach in women's basketball. She has been replaced by the SEC rival coach Dawn Staley, who is slated to earn $4 million per year.