DALLAS — With LSU’s 102-85 victory over Iowa and its star guard Caitlin Clark on Sunday, Kim Mulkey established herself among the elites of college basketball, adding a fourth national championship as a head coach to the three she won at Baylor. 

This national title, in particular, is special for Coach Mulkey because she graced the hardwood in purple and gold threads, representing her home state.

“Memories are all we have in life until they’re gone. Coming back to Louisiana was easy,” she said proudly. 

The hard part is hoisting a trophy that blesses teams with college basketball immortality.

“I’m the only one in our locker room that has done this,” said Mulkey. “But I’m not going to shoot, dribble, pass, guard any of it. So, it’s not a matter of what I have done.”

It falls on the players. The ball is literally in their hands, something Nicole Collins knows all too well. Before she became the head coach for the Cedar Hill girls basketball team, she was the first point guard of Coach Mulkey’s tenure at Baylor.

“Everything you see on the sidelines is who she is,” said Coach Collins. “That’s who she is all the time. She’s a spitfire. She’s very passionate about what she does.”

The fire and intensity Coach Mulkey brings is what’s changed the LSU program, and it’s what resurrected Baylor 23 years ago.

“When I look at it from a coaching perspective now, you have to start somewhere,” Coach Collins said. “As much as Drake likes to say, you can’t go zero to 100. There’s an in-between, there’s a process. You have to build a foundation. Although I’m not the one who got the ring and hung the banners, I’m a huge part in what allowed that to be able to happen.”

Those college memories are so cherished by Nicole, it’s what allowed her to become a head coach herself. 

“To me, this is a profession you have to love and have a passion for, and I do,” Coach Collins said. “I think, also, just the tie of who taught me. My dad, who unfortunately passed away a few years ago, taught me the game of basketball. That connection means so much to me.”

That is the beautiful thing about basketball: the memories we share with the family we’re born with and the family we make along the way.

“I inherited Nicole at Baylor. So proud of her,” Coach Mulkey said. “That’s why you coach: to impact lives. You may not realize the impact a coach has until 10, 20, 30 years down the road.”

Before the national championship game tipped off, we asked Coach Collins what team she was pulling for since Baylor was not in. 

“I’m torn because I love Dawn Staley. I think she’s done a hell of a job with South Carolina. But obviously, my coach is at LSU now. I just think it’ll be so amazing for [Coach Mulkey] to win a national championship in two years. That’s just unheard of.”