When Kim Mulkey admitted being “impressed” by Angel Reese while honoring late singer Toby Keith

LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey was on “The Big D and Bubba Show” in February 2024 to celebrate the National Girls and Women in Sports Week. There, she admitted being “impressed” by Angel Reese after discovering the former Tigers star knew late singer Toby Keith.

The show hosts mentioned to Mulkey that they were playing Keith’s music as an intro to the show, and she informed them of her love for his music.

“I've been listening to Toby Keith ever since I got the message that he passed away, and I love Toby Keith but I love country music that's why I'm here with you guys,” Mulkey said. [Timestamp 0:23 - 0:31]

The hosts then went ahead to inform Mulkey that they had heard she had been playing Keith’s music to the girls during practice, to which she responded:

“The entire practice,” before going ahead to talk about how impressed she was of Reese knowing who Keith was.

“I was impressed when my Superstar All-American Angel Reese walked by and she goes, ‘that's the dude that just passed away today’ ... I was so impressed,” Mulkey said. [Timestamp 0:41-0:51]

Mulkey was then asked about how hard it is to relate to 20-year-olds sometimes, especially when it comes to music taste.

“Well, they allow me to be me,” she said, before going ahead to inform the hosts about Flau’jae Johnson who is a famous rapper on her team. “You know I have a rapper, a very famous rapper on my team, you need to go listen to her, what do they call it, free freestyle or whatever… I just call it music but Flau’jae Johnson.

“So they allow me to play my country music but I did the day he died. I played it from start to finish of practice.” [Timestamp 1:01-1:23]

The Tigers' coach used to sing Keith’s music to her son, a former baseball player at LSU. Keith was an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and businessman who released his chart-topping debut single, "Should've Been a Cowboy," in 1993.

Keith was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2021, admitting that his battle with cancer had been "pretty debilitating" in December 2022. In February 2024, he died at the age of 62.

Kim Mulkey reflected on historic viewership surge in women's basketball

During the show, Kim Mulkey also expressed her amazement at the growing popularity of women’s college basketball, pointing to the record-breaking TV ratings at the time.

"You know, being a female, I’ve watched this for a long time—particularly women’s basketball—and I’ve never seen ratings like this," she said.

"It really started with the national championship game last year when we played against Iowa. I still can’t wrap my head around the numbers we’re continuing to get, and I’m sure Iowa is too. For some reason, those two teams drew a massive crowd, and the fans are still following us. But hey, it’s a good thing." [Timestamp 2:42 - 3:08]

Mulkey mentioned that it was a great thing for women’s sports, which usually do not receive such attention. A retired basketball player, she has been the LSU head coach since 2021 and has won one national title for the Tigers.