Early in LSU‘s NCAA Tournament run this past March, head coach Kim Mulkey discussed a story from the Washington Post potentially being published about her. Mulkey claimed Kent Babb would release a “hit piece” and threatened to sue the Post if ever released.

While a story about Mulkey was released, there were parts left out about specific incidents. The USA TODAY was able to uncover those due to an open requests request, revealing emails between Babb and LSU officials.

One of the incidents involved Angel Reese, who reportedly was involved in a fight while LSU was hosting recruits. Mulkey then allegedly addressed the team in a meeting in 2022, requesting they turn off their phones and leave them in another room.

Those in attendance were reportedly not impressed with what unfolded in Baton Rouge.

“Babb wrote he received from multiple individuals regarding a team meeting in 2022 during which players were required to turn off their phones and leave them in another room while Mulkey addressed the team,” the USA TODAY report said.

“Babb wrote, ‘This was after a fight involving Angel Reese, witnessed by one of my sources, that occurred in front of visiting recruits. One of these individuals present in the team meeting shared that Mulkey said: ‘This entire locker room is trash.’”

This information was uncovered in an email between Babb and LSU Sports Information Director Grant Kauvar, occurring four days before Mulkey spoke on the “hit piece” to the media.

The USA TODAY reached out to both Reese, a current player in the WNBA for the Chicago Sky, and officials at LSU but did not receive any comments.

Reese arrived in Baton Rouge ahead of the 2022-23 season, transferring into the program after two years with the Maryland Terrapins. The reported fight occurred during the season, LSU was having a ton of success with 13 wins out of 13 to kick off the season.

Either way, there was a ton of on-court success both in the regular season and in the NCAA Tournament. LSU finished 34-2 overall and second in the SEC regular season standings. But Mulkey was able to win the program its first-ever national championship, with the historic moment taking place in Dallas.

Reese was a key member of the team, being the leading scorer and rebounder with an average of 23 points and 15.4 rebounds per game. She was also named to the All-NCAA Tournament team for her performance.

Report: Kim Mulkey allegedly disciplined player over Brittney Griner support

LSU coach Kim Mulkey allegedly disciplined a player for showing support for Brittney Griner during the WNBA star’s detainment in Russia in 2022, according to a report from the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.

Mulkey made headlines after calling out the Washington Post and reporter Kent Babb this past March for what she called a “hit piece,” threatening to sue if “a false story” was published. Babb released the article on March 30, though it did not mention the alleged incident involving the Tigers player supporting Griner.

However, the Daily Advertiser obtained via an open records request email correspondence between LSU and the Washington Post that reveal details about what was left out of the story.

One of those emails came directly from Babb, who wrote “an LSU player was disciplined as a result of screenshotting and sharing a social media message of support for Griner during Griner’s detainment.” The Daily Advertiser was unable to confirm whether this was true and the school declined to comment.

What is known is that the relationship between Griner and Mulkey, who was her college coach at Baylor, has been strained for years. Mulkey was asked to weigh in when Griner was detained in Russia on drug charges after a reporter noted she hadn’t yet said anything. The coach cut the question off, saying “and you won’t.”

More than three months after Griner was released and made it back to the United States, Mulkey revealed to ESPN that the two still hadn’t spoken. However, she did say that she was “glad she’s back.”

The article from Babb makes heavy note of the alleged tension between Mulkey and Griner during her time in Waco. It states that Griner is gay but did not come out until 2013 after her final season at Baylor. She wrote a memoir shortly after titled “In My Skin” in which she admitted that she never felt comfortable being her true self around the coach.

“Maybe she would have understood me better,” Griner wrote, “if I had shared more with her, but there was always a little bit of a disconnect with us, because I never really knew if Kim fully accepted me for who I am.”

Griner revealed in the memoir that she wore a shirt under her jersey to cover up her tattoos, which Mulkey disapproved of.

“It seemed like all she cared about was the image of the program as seen through the eyes of a very specific segment of the population,” Griner wrote. “Just once, I wanted her to stop worrying about what everyone else thought and stand by my side.”

In spite of that, Griner is forever linked to Mulkey as a large part of her coaching success. The pair made two Final Four appearances together and won the national championship in 2012, when Griner was named the National Player of the Year after putting up 23.2 points, 9.5 rebounds and 5.2 blocks per game.

Griner was drafted No. 1 overall to the Phoenix Mercury in 2013 and has spent her entire 11-year WNBA career with the team.

LSU set to host Illinois transfer forward Coleman Hawkins

Former Illinois forward Coleman Hawkins is scheduled to visit the LSU Tigers on June 17th, according to a source.

Hawkins, the No. 1 available player in the portal according to On3, averaged 12.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game. He shot 45.1% from the field and nearly 37% from three.

Kansas State is hosting the All-Big Ten 3rd Teamer for a visit on Saturday, June 8th.

Louisville was previously set to host him for a visit but Hawkins will no longer make that trip.

Coleman Hawkins visiting LSU, transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such asynchronous contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

Track transfer portal activity

While the NCAA Transfer Portal database is private, the On3 Network has streamlined the reporting process tracking player movement. If you find yourself asking, ‘How can I track transfer portal activity?’ our well-established network of reporters and contacts across college athletics keeps you up to speed in several ways, from articles written about players as they enter and exit the transfer portal or find their new destination, to our social media channels, to the On3 Transfer Portal.

The transfer portal wire provides a real-time feed of player activity, including basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Industry recruiting ranking, as well as NIL valuation (name, image and likeness).

The On3 Transfer Portal Rankings allow for you to filter the On3 Industry Rankings to find the best of the best in the portal, starting with Overall Top Players.

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

Kim Mulkey shares how LSU players reacted to Seimone Augustus’ hiring

Seimone Augustus is returning home to Baton Rouge after nearly two decades to join Kim Mulkey’s staff at LSU for the 2024-25 season.

Augustus brings with her a wealth of knowledge, experience — and most importantly — success everywhere that she’s gone. Mulkey said that she can’t wait for her players to learn under Augustus’ guide this summer.

“The players learned through a zoom call the night before it was announced. And it was kind of a strange zoom,” Mulkey said during Augustus’ re-introductory press conference. “They were quiet and I don’t know if they were quiet because I don’t do Zoom calls and they were thinking ‘How is Coach doing this, who’s doing this for her?’ Or if they were in awe. Some of them clapped and some of them smiled, but it was just — it was really quiet and I thought that was not so typical of my team, so maybe they’re just waiting to see her in person.”

Regardless of initial reactions, but Augustus is as good of a model as anyone could follow at LSU, especially considering there’s a statue of her outside the arena and her jersey is in the rafters of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

In college, she averaged 19.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, a pair of assists, and 1.4 steals while shooting 54.4%. That made her a two-time winner of the AP Player of the Year, the Naismith Award, and the Wooden Award. She was also a four-time AP All-American along with several other conference and national awards.

From there, Augustus would be the No. 1 pick during the 2006 WNBA Draft. That started a 15-year professional career that would result in her becoming a Hall of Famer and one of the most successful WNBA players of the 2010s.

She played for the Minnesota Lynx from 2006 through 2019 before spending her final season with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2020. She won four WNBA Championships during her career, including eight All-Star appearances and was named to the WNBA 25th Anniversary team in 2021. She also won three Olympic gold medals for the U.S. National Team during that span.

It’s also worth noting that Augustus’ Lynx squads are the ones that Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark grew up watching as her favorite team.

This isn’t Augustus’ first coaching gig, either. After retiring from her playing career following her lone season for the Sparks, she remaining in LA from 2021-22 as an assistant for the team.

Now, she returns to Baton Rouge to help lead the Tigers to a potential second national championship in three seasons.