But when asked when she's worried about the season being finished amid a pandemic, she did not mince words.
"The response is that: The season will last on. It is known as the almighty buck," Mulkey said following the Lady Bears dropped 75-71 into Iowa State at Waco, Texas, finishing the longest present home-court winning streak in Division I women's basketball in 61 games. "The NCAA must possess the almighty buck out of the men's tournament.
"One convention does so, 1 convention does this. The CDC claims this. Everybody is perplexed. I am perplexed. I am uncomfortable training. I know, COVID is actual. I have had it come speak to me sometime. However, I really don't know... all of the calls and processes, that is gont move on and allow it to be odd, uncomfortable for every single app.
She missed No. 6 Baylor's latest match, Jan. 2 at TCU, then rejoined the group for training Jan. 4 following several negative evaluations.
However, following a positive evaluation with that day's testing, the total Baylor app went on bare Jan. 5, canceling the Lady Bears' nonconference showdown with UConn on Jan. 7 and also postponing Big 12 matches against Kansas State (Jan. 10) and Kansas (Jan. 13). Baylor, 8-2, was guard DiJonai Carrington and forwards Caitlin Bickle on Saturday, as these players are still in quarantine.
The remainder of the Baylor players arrived off the pause Friday and had their first exercise in 2 weeks using Mulkey on match day. She even gave the Cyclones complete credit for finishing the Lady Bears' series, stating Baylor could probably defeat some competitions with this little groundwork, but not Iowa State.
"That staff has 3-pointers that expose us that staff has great training," she explained. "It was an ideal time for everything you saw happen to take place."
Saturday was the second time that the Cyclones have won in Waco; the very first was in 1997, at the inaugural season of the Big 12. In that match, Joens hit the winning free throw and also finished the Lady Bears' 58-game Large 12 regular-season winning series.
Baylor's loss Saturday supposed both greatest busy home-court winning streaks in women's basketball finished the exact same week.
It was a massive success for Iowa State (9-4) from the team which has won or shared the previous 10 Large 12 regular-season names and contains three NCAA championships. Joens, a junior guard/forward, is the Big 12's top scorer in 24.6 points per match. That 1997 Cyclone success in Waco arrived before she was born.
"It feels great when you are able to find a win like this," Joens said. "Everybody did their jobs, everybody implemented. Knowing that we are able to compete at the maximum level with these kinds of teams, it sort of gives us confidence going into the remainder of the year"
