Ahead of a highly-anticipated college basketball matchup between the LSU Tigers and Iowa Hawkeyes to determine who will advance to the Final Four in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament, there has been palpable buzz surrounding superstar players Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.
Surrounding the play on the court is the debate surrounding a story written by The Washington Post about LSU head coach Kim Mulkey that went in depth about her life, including her upbringing and coaching career. Mulkey stated before Saturday’s game that she was unaware the story had been published and was not sure if she would read it. Earlier last week, she threatened legal action against the publication and described what was then a forthcoming article as a “hit piece.”
The game between LSU and Iowa will be broadcast on ESPN Monday night at 7 p.m. EST from the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y., the first of the final two games within the Elite Eight. Morning show co-hosts for 670 The Score, Mike Mulligan and David Haugh, will be watching the action as it unfolds. A preponderance of the basketball world is curious to see if Caitlin Clark will be able to win an NCAA title in her final year with Iowa before declaring for the 2024 WNBA Draft. Earlier this season, Clark broke the NCAA all-time basketball scoring record, eclipsing Pete Maravich with 3,650 career points.
“I do watch, and I’m aware of when Caitlin Clark is playing,” Mulligan said on Monday. “I’m aware of how good South Carolina has been and that they are the team. I get that, but I do think that the whole Caitlin Clark experience has captured a lot of basketball fans.”
Mulligan watched the championship matchup last year between these two teams that resulted in an LSU victory averaging 9.9 million viewers on ABC, ESPN and ESPN+, which rendered it the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history. On Saturday afternoon, show producer Dustin Rhoades saw Iowa eliminate Colorado from the tournament in an 89-68 win, a game in which Clark posted 29 points and 15 assists in 37 minutes of play.
“I would even go so far as to say Caitlin Clark is the most likable college athlete going right now against the most unlikable coach, the easiest coach to dislike in Kim Mulkey,” Haugh said. “I do know way more about her life than I want to. That was a great story because it was an exhaustive profile; this is what you do when you write profiles.”
Mulligan acknowledged that Mulkey possesses several grudges after Haugh explained the process that journalists go through to write profile pieces. Both Mulligan and Haugh are former print journalists themselves for the Chicago Tribune, and they have been hosting the morning drive program together on 670 The Score for several years. Before Haugh officially joined the program, Mulligan hosted different iterations with Rick Telander and Brian Hanley. At the end of this discussion, Haugh made it clear that he was rooting against LSU and hopeful that Iowa would advance to the Final Four.
“Let’s hope she’s out of victories because I don’t want them to win tonight,” Haugh said of Mulkey and LSU. “I will watch tonight, I will watch Iowa and I will say, ‘Go Hawkeyes!’ I may even wear black and yellow just because there’s no way I want to see Kim Mulkey get to the Final Four. Her 15 minutes this year – over. Enough already. More Caitlin Clark please.”
