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![]() Mulkey was flown into Baton Rouge by LSU on the university's jet and was greeted by athletic director Scott Woodward, along with men's basketball coach Will Wade and baseball coach Paul Mainieri, for whom her son, Kramer Robertson, played from 2014 to 2017.Īfter Mulkey arrived on campus, she was greeted by football coach Ed Orgeron. “I can now tell Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes and people don’t look at me like I’ve lost my mind.” “I can’t wait to eat some Ponchatoula strawberries. Louisiana is my home,” said Mulkey, who grew up near the town that hosts the state's annual strawberry festival. “If you have followed my career, I’ve said it numerous times. The Bears lost to UConn last month in the regional finals of this years NCAA tournament. “There’s only one institution I would have left for, and they made the commitment and I’m home,” said Mulkey, who helped Baylor win the 2019 NCAA championship. LSU hasn’t made it past the Sweet 16 since 2007. So when an opportunity was presented to the 58-year-old to return to Louisiana and coach at the state's flagship institution, the pull was too hard to resist - even if it meant leaving a program she'd built into a perennial contender for another that missed the 2021 NCAA Tournament after going 9-13 last season. She then won national titles as both a player and assistant coach at Louisiana Tech before spending 21 years in Waco, Texas. Her lawyers have appealed the decision and President Joe Biden is working towards a potential prisoner swap with Russia for Griner and former marine Paul Whelan.īaylor did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.A native of Tickfaw, Louisiana, Mulkey won state championships at Hammond High School, about 45 miles east of LSU. Griner faces nine years in prison after being detained for possession of cannabis oil in February. I see her as a mother, as a sister, as a spouse, as a daughter, as an unbelievable ambassador for the game of basketball.” “I think we all know that 10 years is a long time. “But I guess I would wanna know if I did something and was stuck in a foreign country, what it was, what it wasn’t. No one’s saying she didn’t make a mistake. “I think BG, first of all, is human first. I mean, honestly, she just is one of those people that radiates joy. “Knowing BG, knowing her, being around her, she’s a big kid,” Collen said. “And no matter how much support I felt as a basketball player at Baylor, it still doesn’t erase all the pain I felt there.”īaylor’s current head coach Nicki Collen was also asked about Griner’s situation this week. She wrote, “I would love to be an ambassador for Baylor, to show my school pride, but it’s hard to do that … I’ve spent too much of my life being made to feel like there’s something wrong with me. In her autobiography Griner wrote about her conflicted relationship with the university. Griner later said in her autobiography that her criticism was not aimed at Mulkey, but rather at general culture at Baylor University.īaylor is a private Baptist university in Waco, Texas which in its student handbook includes a policy that states that sex should be confined to heterosexual marriages. “The coaches thought that if it seemed like they condoned it, people wouldn’t let their kids come play for Baylor.” “It was a recruiting thing,” Griner said in an interview with ESPN. In 2013 Griner came out as a lesbian and said that Baylor wanted her to keep quiet about it. Griner broke the NCAA record for blocks, won Top Athlete Rank, and sealed her place as arguably the best player in the university’s history. In her four years at Baylor, Griner powered the team to 131 wins, four Sweet 16s, three Elite Eights, two Final Fours and a national title. That included a 40-0 season in Griner’s junior year where she was named Final Four Most Outstanding Player, as well as earning AP Player of the Year and the Wade Trophy Player of the Year. Griner and Mulkey enjoyed incredible success with each other at Baylor University. ![]() I think there’s lots of people speaking out on her behalf and those of us who don’t necessarily speak publicly about it certainly are praying for her.” I think that’s a personal issue that you just want everybody to come home safely. “I keep up with it, like you guys do, as far as what’s in the national media,” said Mulkey. While Mulkey has remained fairly quiet publicly about her former player she did speak about Griner when on Tiger Rag Radio in June. ![]() Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images In her time at Baylor, Griner scored 3,283 points, made 1,305 rebounds and 784 blocks.
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