Controversial coach Kim Mulkey flings ‘damn mask’ in fiery first showing as new LSU head coach

• Soon-to-be Hall of Famer Kim Mulkey was introduced as LSU's head coach on Monday.
• The three-time national champion left the dynasty she built at Baylor to return home to Louisiana.
• At her first press conference, Mulkey ripped off her "damn mask" to crowd applause.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Kim Mulkey has come home.

After 21 years, seven Big 12 Coach of the Year awards, a dozen Big 12 regular-season titles, and three national championships in Waco, Texas, Mulkey has parted ways with the powerhouse Baylor Lady Bears program she built from scratch for a new challenge in the SEC. News broke this week that the soon-to-be Hall of Fame head coach is returning to her home state of Louisiana to take over LSU's women's basketball program.

And the polarizing play-caller started her Tigers tenure off with a bang.

-LSU Women's Basketball (@LSUwbkb) April 27, 2021

At the beginning of her introductory press conference on Monday, Mulkey walked up to the podium while wearing an LSU-branded face mask, bantered with the fans in attendance, then dramatically flung her "damn mask" off the stage because "I have a lot to say."

Many in the crowd cheered.

-Meredith Cash (@mercash22) April 26, 2021

It's far from the first time Mulkey has made eyebrow-raising comments relating to the pandemic in public. Just last month, the then-Baylor head coach insisted that the NCAA should stop its COVID-19 testing procedures at March Madness because it could ruin the Final Four.

She also made a display of fussing with her mask during her post-game press conference following the No. 2 Lady Bears' controversial Elite Eight loss to Paige Bueckers and the top-ranked UConn Huskies.

-Meredith Cash (@mercash22) March 30, 2021

Mulkey got sick in January after she had come in contact with a family member who later tested positive for COVID-19, so she isolated herself from her team and even missed a game. After returning three consecutive negative COVID tests, Mulkey rejoined her players and staff only to receive a positive diagnosis the next day.

Baylor's program briefly shut down from there, with the school forced to cancel its team's marquee regular-season matchup with UConn as well as games against the Kansas Jayhawks and the Kansas State Wildcats. The Lady Bears' hiatus may very well have cost them a top seed in the NCAA tournament two months later.

But even shortly after temporarily derailing her team's season, Mulkey was pushing back against pandemic-related safety measures put in place to protect college basketball programs like her own.

"One conference does this, one conference does that. The CDC says this. Everybody is confused. I'm confused," Mulkey told The Washington Post. "I'm uncomfortable coaching. I understand, COVID is real. I've had it - come talk to me sometime. But I don't know … all the calls and procedures, that's going to go on and make it unusual, uncomfortable for every program."

The 2020 Naismith Hall of Fame inductee finds herself in a markedly different situation now than the one she was in this winter. Four months after her brush with COVID-19, Mulkey is settling into a new role in a new state as vaccine rollout is in full force across the United States.

But Louisiana's 31% vaccination rate marks the third-worst percentage in the country, per Nola.com. And with positivity rates increasing across the vast majority of the state, Mulkey's mask-flinging antics at an indoor homecoming ceremony are undoubtedly at odds with the advice of health experts.

Check out Mulkey's full comments from her first press conference as LSU's head coach below: