LSU's Kim Mulkey named Allstate Sugar Bowl's outstanding collegiate coach for 2022-23

Not many coaches could beat Tulane football coach Willie Fritz, LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson or Delgado baseball coach Joe Scheuermann this year.
Then again, Kim Mulkey isn’t just anyone.
The LSU women’s basketball coach beat a field of three other highly regarded finalists to be named the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Collegiate Coach for Louisiana for the 2022-23 athletic year.
Mulkey’s second season at LSU was one for the ages. With one returning starter from a 26-6 team in 2021-22, Mulkey put together a squad that included nine newcomers, led by All-American forward Angel Reese, a transfer from Maryland. Mulkey’s Tigers went 34-2 and beat Iowa 102-85 for the NCAA championship on April 2 in Dallas, with Reese named the MVP.
The win was an emotional one for Mulkey, the Tickfaw native and former Louisiana Tech star who spoke of the strong ties to her home state when she left Baylor for LSU in April 2021.
“With about 1:30 to go, I couldn’t hold it,” Mulkey said in the NCAA championship postgame news conference. “I got emotional. That’s not very like me until the final buzzer goes off. I don’t know what it was, but I just lost it. So that should tell you what I think about it.”
Two days earlier, LSU beat Virginia Tech in the Women’s Final Four national semifinals, the first Final Four win for LSU in 10 combined men’s and women’s appearances.
Mulkey, who won three NCAA championships at Baylor, is the only coach to officially lead multiple Division I women’s or men’s programs to national titles. She now has a career record of 692-112 in 23 seasons of coaching, a winning percentage of .861.
Fritz led Tulane to a 12-2 record in 2022 that included the American Athletic Conference championship and an upset win over Southern California in the Cotton Bowl. Johnson, also in his second season, coached LSU to its seventh College World Series title with a championship series victory over Florida and a 54-17 overall record.
Scheuermann led Delgado to the 2023 South Central District championship and the Dolphins’ sixth trip to the NJCAA World Series.
The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, selects annual award winners in a variety of categories, including amateur athletes of the month and each year’s Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame class.
Honorees are being announced over a two-week period, wrapping up with the Corbett Awards for the state’s top male and female amateur athletes on July 28.