Baylor’s Kim Mulkey: “After Losing Lauren Cox We Weren’t Supposed to Win”

Most of Baylor’s players were just babies when Kim Mulkey became the head coach of the Lady Bears back in 2000. Some of them were learning to talk, others were saying their first words.

It is maybe why the 56-year old became so emotional after the national championship game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and started crying.

“Wow,” she said and stopped for a moment. “You know, I’m just so emotional for a lot of reasons, but mostly for Lauren Cox.”

Baylor’s young star forward suffered a severe knee injury in the late part of the third quarter and had to leave the court in wheelchairs. She would come back on the bench later, but her injury looked so bad.

“By God, she’s the heart and soul of our team,” Mulkey stated through her tears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0jKAkr4ir8&t=35s

In those moments, Baylor was up 12 points, and everything seemed just fine. But Cox’s injury changed it all. Whether it was because of her absence from the paint or because her teammates suffered a shock, the Lady Bears choked.

Arike Ogunbowale started splashing from all positions, and the Fighting Irish quickly made an 11-0 run and came back into the game. When Ogunbowale made a go-ahead free throw with 3:18 to go, and Notre Dame took the lead 77-76, despair overwhelmed Baylor’s fans.

Even Mulkey knew that the odds for winning this one are low, especially after Cox’s injury.

“I just know when you lose a big-time player in the middle of the national championship game, you’re not supposed to win.”

But Chloe Jackson didn’t think like that. She stepped up took the responsibility and played the best sequence of her life. In the moments when both offenses struggled and when neither team could score a basket, Jackson delivered four straight points, keeping her team in the lead.

The most important one was 3.9 second before the end. She calmly drove to the basket and made a layup which will later turn out to be the decisive one or the whole game.

After that Ogunbowale headed for the free throw line and missed one attempt, which was enough for Baylor to win.

“I couldn’t come this far and then go home without the victory,” Jackson said, dedicating this win to her injured teammate, who received the trophy on the podium, with the help of other Lady Bears’ players.

Mulkey’s emotional outburst during the on-court interview was a mixture of joy and sorrow. She was happy because of the win, but also, very upset with all the major injuries her players had in recent years.

“These are tears of joy, but they are also tears thinking about injuries,” mentioning Kristy Wallace and Cox. “Those kids gave me everything they had, and sometimes life doesn’t seem fair.”

The degree if Lauren Cox’ injury is still not revealed. She herself didn’t know what to say after the game last night. We truly hope that it won’t affect her career.

For Baylor, this is the third title in their history, all of them under Mulkey who is now third on the all-time list when looking the national championship titles. Geno Auriemma has 11, Pat Summitt 8. In total, she has five of them when including two won as a player.

Baylor’s previous title came in 2012, when they defeated the same opponent, only much confident, and without too many problems, 80-61.

Notre Dame missed a chance to become only the fourth school in history to defend the national title. They had a nice run, but somewhere along the road, they spent all of their luck.

Besides failing to clinch the trophy, Fighting Irish also didn’t reach their 1,000th victory.

The ladies college basketball season is over. Some of these girls will head for the WNBA; others will stay and give it another shot at the NCAA title.

For us, there is one more stop when talking about the NCAA, and that is men’s finals between Texas Tech and Virginia. Don’t miss that one.