“It is hard to have best friends in this business”: When Kim Mulkey shared about her basketball mentors and relations between coaches

LSU Tigers coach Kim Mulkey has become one of the most successful college coaches in recent history. Since taking over the school in 2021, the 62-year-old has steered it to the 2023 national championship, along with her own accolades, such as being awarded the AP College Basketball Coach of the Year in 2022 and two other times.

Currently, Mulkey is looking to return the Tigers to championship glory. In the 2024-2025 season, they have a staggering 19-0 overall record. They have been a force in the SEC, going undefeated in four games, the most recent being an 83-77 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores on Monday.

However, with all the success she has garnered, Kim Mulkey previously said she hasn't had the same results with developing meaningful connections with her colleagues in college basketball. During her speech on Louisiana Public Broadcasting's Newsmakers segment in April 2023, the tenured tactician detailed this difficulty.

"None (on good friendships)," Mulkey said (18:17). "My mentors and people who taught me this great game were Pat Summit and Leon Barmore... It is hard to have best friends in the business because somewhere along the way, you're going to recruit the same player and you're gonna get mad at each other.

"Somewhere along the way you're going to disagree on things that happened in the sport."

To cope with this, the fourth-year LSU coach said she tends to keep things to herself.

"My personality honestly, I have trust issues...," Mulkey said (19:05). "I don't tell people a whole lot. My circle of friends is very small. I have tons of acquaintances. But people who truly know me is very small, and it's not because I have anything to hide. I don't hide anything...I just don't tell a whole lot."

Even with Kim Mulkey saying she has difficulties gaining friends in the field, she can consider her star alumni, such as WNBA standout Angel Reese, and her current crop of LSU players, like Flau'jae Johnson, her closest companions in the sport.

After all, they look poised for a deep run in the national tournament come March, especially with the synergy she has developed with her athletes.

Kim Mulkey names Nell Fortner as one of her closest friends

Later on, however, Kim Mulkey reasserted that she has close friends in the college basketball landscape. One of them, she said, is Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets coach Nell Fortner, as Mulkey talked about their friendship, saying (21:10):

"I do have a couple of friends. The lady at Alabama, she and I coached together at Louisiana Tech. Georgia Tech, Nell and I coached together. There are many that we coached together. My mentors are going to be the older coaches that I learned from."

Mulkey and Fortner both served as assistant coaches for the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters throughout the '80s to '90s, before the renowned coaches went their separate ways in 1995.