SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The LSU women’s basketball team arrived in Sacramento on Wednesday for its Sweet 16 matchup against Duke on Friday and, if all goes according to plan, an Elite Eight game Monday.
Also arriving in Sacramento on Wednesday: three boxes full of outfits — including one, of course, from Baton Rouge’s Queen of Sparkles clothing store — for head coach Kim Mulkey and assistant coach Jennifer Roberts.
Roberts, the team’s director of player personnel and influence, is Mulkey’s primary stylist for game day. It’s her job to “give the people what they want to see,” from Mulkey’s outfits, she said. In other words, sparkles. “And if it’s not sparkly,” she said, “something outlandish.”
But look up and down the LSU sideline and you’ll notice a trend.
It’s not just Mulkey who’s dressed to the nines every time LSU takes the court, with her feathers, sequins or bold patterns making her fits must-see Internet content this time of year.
Rate @LSUwbkb coach Kim Mulkey’s national championship game fit ✨ pic.twitter.com/bHIqWgy73W
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) April 2, 2023
Roberts and her fellow LSU assistants have very much leaned into expressing themselves creatively via their own fashion, too. Whether it’s a matching set worn by Roberts, a plaid or pinstripe suit from assistant Joe Schwartz or fun sweaters and polos from former LSU star-turned-assistant coach Seimone Augustus, the LSU staff’s wardrobe might just be the most eclectic in the sport.
“I haven’t missed this year,” Roberts joked. “I will say that.”
LSU’s desire to dress to impress started when Mulkey took the job in 2021, right around the same time coaches — particularly in men’s college basketball — ditched their traditional suits in favor of more comfortable school-issued quarter zips in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Mulkey, whom Augustus describes as “always the belle of the ball,” had different plans, though.
“When we came to Baton Rouge (from Baylor), Kim was like, ‘We need to make a good impression on these people,’” Roberts said. “‘We’re at a new school, (we’re) a new staff, we need to make a good impression.’ Little did we know that this impression, it starts with Kim, all the blazers and all the sparkles and all the things, it created a craze. A legit craze.
“We have people that will come to the games to see what Kim is wearing.”
Each assistant coach has his or her individual process when it comes to picking out outfits, but there is one common thread: None (by choice) have stylists. Instead, it’s all about curating a specific look to match a personal brand.
For Roberts, who may be most recognizable for the hot pink matching set she wore in LSU’s 2023 Sweet 16 in the team’s run up to a national title, it’s all about gut feeling.
“I don’t know what I’m gonna feel like that day, and I’ve done this before, like an outfit to wear in a game or on the road, I’ll put it on and then I’m like, ‘I hate this.’ Or ‘I’m just not feeling this,’” she said. “So I always bring options.”
Schwartz, who played at Texas from 2014-2018, is known for his suits. He went with plaid suits in the first two rounds of the tournament but has pinstripes planned for this weekend in Sacramento. He likes to draw inspiration from coaches he has admired over the years, including Alabama’s Wimp Sanderson, whom his mother worked for when Sanderson was the men’s basketball coach from 1980-1992 and routinely donned sport coats, neck ties and pleated khakis.
“So that’s what I grew up watching,” said Schwartz, who added he shops year-round to keep an eye out for potential outfits. “I played for Shaka Smart, … and it was in an era that (dressing up was) what coaches were known for. Jay Wright at Villanova, loved his fashion. He was big on the pinstripe suits.”
Augustus, the newbie of the group, came to her alma mater ahead of last season, and joked she had to up her game after wearing mostly team gear as a WNBA assistant for the Los Angeles Sparks.
A big part of her approach is finding clothes that fit her style, but that are also affordable enough so that when fans ask her where they’re from — and they frequently do — she can send them straight to a source that won’t break the bank. Some of her favorites? The LSU bookstore, the LSU alumni center and Fanatics.
“I was so used to being on the W(NBA) side where you just wear team-issued gear, and I was like, ‘Oh my Gah, I haven’t been shopping in years, so now I’ve got to put outfits together, figure out my closet, put pieces together, which is fun,” she said. “I’m trying. But it’s definitely sparked a creativity within myself, figuring (out) what my fashion is now. I’m 40-something years old, who am I, what do I look like?”
Augustus joked that there are no harsher critics of the LSU assistants’ choices than the players themselves, who like to grade coaches based on how much they like (or dislike) the outfits.
Augustus, who admitted she got one F for a flop against Texas A&M, said her favorite outfit came on Valentine’s Day, when she rocked a black sweater with a large red heart and bright red matching shoes. Roberts is partial to the army green bomber jacket matching set she wore in the first round of the tournament. And Schwartz picked the custom shoes coaches wore in December that were designed by children from Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, an effort he helped coordinate, as his favorite fashion moment of the season.
Joe Schwartz says style comes naturally, but LSU took his fashion game to a new level. (Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)
“Coach (Mulkey) talks about dressing nice and being presentable and kind of going out of your way to impress other people,” he said. “And so it’s kind of fun now. Game by game, just to figure out what you want to wear. I know a lot of people look into that and it has trickled down to the staff.
“We all get it from Coach. When your boss dresses like that, you don’t want to be slacking.”
Mulkey said she doesn’t pay much attention to what her assistants are wearing but always hopes they dress professionally.
Critical opinions aside, LSU players very much do care, though.
“I love it,” said freshman forward Grace Knox. “I feel like, honestly, it gets us kind of in the zone for the game. I know that sounds weird, but I feel like when everybody’s put together on the bench, it just kind of — at least for me — I think it kind of represents LSU.”
And so the fashion show will continue for LSU as the nation’s top-scoring offense takes the floor again Friday, turning the sideline into a runway. Bring on all of the feathers, sequins, colors, textures, patterns and glitter. Except for maybe Bob Starkey, Mulkey’s 66-year-old longtime assistant who keeps things a bit more … traditional. Star guard Flau’jae Johnson joked he’s the best-dressed of the bunch.
“When you think of LSU women’s basketball, you think of fashion, but you also think of style of play,” Schwartz said. “It’s not just style on the sideline. … It’s all been fun.”
