Over the past eight days, speculation swirled over what details might be embedded in a Washington Post profile of LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey.

After the story was published two-and-a-half hours before LSU’s tip-off against UCLA in the Sweet 16 of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, questions shifted to what effect, if any, it might have on the Tigers as they aim to successfully defend their 2023 national championship.

REQUIRED READING: Kim Mulkey vs The Washington Post: Everything we know

As Mulkey sees it, it’s a moot issue.

“You’re telling me something I didn’t know,” Mulkey said to ESPN’s Holly Rowe in a pregame interview when asked for a reaction to the piece coming out. “You’re the bearer of good news or bad news or however you want to look at it. But are you really surprised? Are you really surprised by the timing of it? I can tell you I haven’t read it. Don’t know if I will read it. I’ll leave that up to my attorneys.”

While lengthy and thoroughly reported, the story didn’t contain any new allegations. Former players of Mulkey’s at Baylor asserted that they were treated differently because they were gay, claims that Mulkey’s attorneys denied. Alexis Morris, who played for Mulkey for one season at Baylor and two seasons at LSU, was quoted in the story saying that Mulkey is “not homophobic.”

On March 22, Sports Illustrated writer Pat Forde had posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that he was “hearing some buzz” about a “big” Washington Post story on Mulkey.

Before the piece was released, Mulkey — who declined repeated interview requests with the Washington Post — used two NCAA Tournament news conferences to describe the story as a “hit piece” and threaten legal action in the event of “a false story.”

With the story now available to the public, Mulkey and her team can shift their focus to their championship aspirations.

“For heaven’s sake, what distractions?” Mulkey said in response to a pregame question from about how the team is navigating distractions surrounding it. “My kids are celebrities. They live in a world of distractions. This is basketball. I don’t know what distractions you’re talking about. If it’s newspaper stuff and all that, it doesn’t involve those kids.”

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU's Kim Mulkey responds to publication of Washington Post profile of her