After defeating Miami 54-42 on Sunday to earn a berth in the Final Four, the LSU women's basketball team headed home that night from Greenville, South Carolina.
The team, band, cheerleaders and administrators headed to the airport, where they ended up sitting on the tarmac for three hours in their chartered plane, waiting for a storm to pass. They didn't end up in Baton Rouge until 4 a.m.
By mid-Monday morning, coach Kim Mulkey still had not slept.
At 10:30 a.m. Monday, on her way back from dropping off her daughter's family at the airport to head back to Waco, Texas, Mulkey was tired but still going strong.
"We had seven kids on that plane under the age of 4. You know how they get delirious when they get so tired?"
There was one consolation.
"I said, 'Well, I sure am glad we won,' " Mulkey said. "That would have been much worse."
She said she would make time for sleep — but more than resting, she was focused on her son being home with her.
Kramer Robertson is still in the minor leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals organization. She had arranged for a chartered flight for Robertson to get to Sunday's night game against Miami as soon as baseball allowed for him to travel.
"Kramer got there at the beginning of the third quarter," she said. "He doesn't report to Memphis until Tuesday at 5. He said he's planning to sit on the patio, eat crawfish and drink Barq's Root Beer."
She plans to be right there with him.
Mulkey described herself as "deliriously tired, but a happy tired," saying she's happy for a variety of people.
"Happy for LSU. Happy for Louisiana. Happy for the players — they've never been to the Final Four. Happy for the coaches, especially the ones who are experiencing a Final Four for the first time," Mulkey said.
For Mulkey, the Final Four is familiar ground. She has been four other times as a coach, and she most recently led Baylor to a national championship in 2019.
"It's nothing different but a new team, new colors and a new school," she said. "It's kind of crazy to think we've done this in two years. I can't deny that we're ahead of schedule. We jump-started this program through the transfer portal."
She acknowledged one thing that would be a bit different for this trip to the Final Four: She will likely dress with a bit more sparkle.
Her closet full of glitz and glamor combined with her internet-breaking flamingo-sleeved jacket Friday night's game against Utah is evident of the additional sparkle. Mulkey acknowledges that the clothes she's wearing at LSU are more flamboyant than the ones she wore while coaching at Baylor, a private Baptist school that lifted its 151-year ban on dancing in 1996.
Even so, Mulkey contends that dressing nice has always been important to her.
"I have always dressed nice. I dressed nice when I went to school. Yes, it's a little more sparkly, glitzy here. We're in Louisiana. That's a thing here. These stylists give you jackets. They're well-known designers. What are you going to do?" she asked. "All of that is great. But I really hope the people are looking at the product on the floor."
Yes, we are here for the basketball, but even Mulkey has to acknowledge that Friday's Elton John-esque outfit screams to be noted, especially juxtaposed to her no-nonsense personality.
Are Mulkey's sartorial choices designed to be a platform to bring more people to what is most important to her?
Maybe.
"We need to talk about basketball. Basketball is the most important part — much more important than what I wear," she said. "Yes, my outfits are a little bit more sparkly, but I want to talk about the product on the floor — basketball."
Speaking of basketballs, Mulkey says she has to wonder what's going on with the new balls the NCAA tournament is using.
"I don't want to complain. As a (former) guard, I watch guard play. I do know how bouncy this ball is. I watch shooters — other than Caitlin Clark, everybody was clanking everywhere," Mulkey said. "I didn't want to buy into something going on with those basketballs, but something seems different. Even so, we're all playing with the same balls."
Mulkey said she hasn't been able to watch much of Iowa's Clark play yet, but she's impressed with what she's seen.
"What a player," Mulkey said, adding that she predicts that South Carolina will win today over Maryland, which would pit South Carolina against Iowa in the Final Four.
"This kind of game is good for women's basketball," Mulkey said.
Looking at her own team's trajectory — specifically related to their loss to Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference tournament — Mulkey said she saw some of LSU's players with "hurt feelings in the locker room," believing that they let their teammates down.
She respects their response to the loss.
"They became extremely focused. They held themselves responsible. They went back to work," Mulkey said, work that has led them to the Final Four.
Mulkey hopes LSU fans will make a good showing in Dallas.
"Better get your tickets. There are not going to be an abundance of tickets. LSU needs to be there in full force. I predict we'll be asking other schools for their tickets, but there aren't many to go around," she said.
As to what she'll be wearing at the tournament?
"I have no idea. I'm literally unpacking my bag and washing my clothes from this last trip right now," she said, adding that when desginers' clothes show up and are presented, she's as surprised as the rest of us.
Mulkey has said, in the past, that she does draw the line on some of the outfits going too far.
However, if Friday's outfit was any indication, like so much else in Mulkey's world, she keeps pushing that line further and further.