By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
The LSU women’s basketball team has earned its best seed of the Kim Mulkey era, landing a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers will host fifteenth-seeded Jacksonville on Friday inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center (5 p.m., ESPN).
#LSU will take on fifteenth-seeded Jacksonville of the Atlantic Sun Conference in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday at a time to be announced. pic.twitter.com/IjABhP9n5j
— Andre Champagne (@andrechampagnee) March 16, 2026
Head coach Kim Mulkey said Selection Sunday is always special because it serves as a reminder of everything her team has accomplished throughout the long season.
“I’ll always be excited as long as I have a breath to cheer, pump my fist and do things because I just don’t take it for granted,” Mulkey said on Sunday. “And it’s work. It’s work to maintain something and it’s work to build something. And just don’t let people forget how hard it is. It is hard and it is darn hard to win championships.”
First and second round games in Baton Rouge this weekend will be on Friday and Sunday.
LSU (27-5, 12-4 Southeastern Conference) will host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive year. The four teams in the Baton Rouge regional are second-seeded LSU, fifteenth-seeded Jacksonville (24-8, 13-5 Atlantic Sun Conference), seventh-seeded Texas Tech (25-7, 12-6 Big 12 Conference) and tenth-seeded Villanova (25-7, 16-4 Big East Conference).
Mulkey shared her initial reactions to the draw and the teams coming to Baton Rouge for the first and second rounds this weekend.
“Everybody’s good,” Mulkey sad. “Villanova will like it here with all the Catholics we have in Louisiana, right? I’m familiar with obviously Krista (Gerlich), the coach at Texas Tech. She was a great player there. If y’all remember, she played with Cheryl Swoops and won a national championship for Marsha Sharp. And don’t know the coach at Villanova and don’t know Jacksonville, so for the three that are coming here, that’s as much as I know tonight.”
But Mulkey is confident that by Monday morning, she’ll be much more familiar with all of them after associate head coach Bob Starkey does some late-night scouting on Sunday.
“That’s why Coach Bob is across the street. He’ll have all that ready for us tomorrow,” Mulkey said.
Should LSU advance out of the first two rounds, it would travel to Sacramento, where it is paired with No. 1 seed UCLA (31-1, 18-0 Big 10 Conference).
It’s the third straight year that LSU will travel far from Baton Rouge.
“I do hate it for LSU fans because it would be so convenient to go to Fort Worth,” Mulkey said.
Even though that’s still a ways away, Mulkey said her primary focus is preparing her team to win the first two games of the tournament.
“We’ve been on the floor since Wednesday, but it’ll be good to be back on the floor and know who we’re prepping for,” Mulkey said. “The unknown is not just preparing for Jacksonville, but you’ve got to do your homework on the other two because should you win, you don’t know who you’re going to play. So we’ll be prepared.”
Other notable teams in Region 2 of the Sacramento Region include third-seeded Duke (24-8, 16-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), fourth-seeded Minnesota (22-8, 13-5 Big 10 Conference), fifth-seeded Ole Miss (23-11, 8-8 SEC) and sixth-seeded Baylor (24-8, 13-5 Big 12).
Kim Mulkey’s reaction to Duke being revealed as the No. 3 seed in their regional.
— Andre Champagne (@andrechampagnee) March 16, 2026
The Tigers beat the Blue Devils 93-77 early in December. #LSU pic.twitter.com/LLXlSx93em
It marks the third straight season LSU and UCLA have been placed in the same regional of the bracket. The Tigers defeated the Bruins in 2024 before UCLA evened the postseason series last season with an Elite Eight win.
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