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Kim Mulkey guided the LSU Tigers to their third consecutive Elite Eight with a win on Friday night, but before celebrating she spent some time comforting NC State players in the handshake line.

"Well, one of 'em, I know personally. Maddie Cox," Mulkey said. "Her older sister [Lauren Cox] won a national championship for me at Baylor. So I've watched that young lady since she was -- Maddie was 10, 12 years old. And she had a good game today. I know that family very well. And what I said to her was, 'This is the part of the game none of us like, Maddie. Get your head up.' She took it hard. 

"Saniya Rivers, I told her what a great player she was."

Rivers said LSU was one of the schools she considered when she was in high school, and then again after spending one season at South Carolina and entering the transfer portal.

"A lot of respect for coach Kim Mulkey. She's been great to me," Rivers said. "She tried to give me a second opportunity as well. In the handshake line, she said she loved watching me play and she was proud of me, and it just made me happy to hear."

Madison Hayes said she was feeling emotional because as a grad student this was her last college basketball game. She said she has "much respect" for Mulkey and said she is "one of the best college coaches in the nation for a reason."

Before the game, Mulkey and NC State coach Wes Moore greeted each other with a hug and some brief words that resulted in laughter. The mood wasn't the same after the game, but Mulkey still wanted to show Moore her appreciation so she approached him once again.

"I've been through that line when you've lost. And I think the world of Wes Moore," Mulkey said. "There's certain coaches in your profession you don't like coaching against because either they're really, really good, and he is, as a coach, but he's a really good man, and I just told him that. I said, You're just a good man, Wes, and you're a heck of a coach."