{"id":36441,"date":"2026-09-02T22:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/36441\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T22:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:30:09","slug":"kim-mulkeys-signing-of-russian-anna-minaeva-is-why-ukraines-kate-koval-left-lsu-amid-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/36441\/","title":{"rendered":"Kim Mulkey\u2019s Signing Of Russian Anna Minaeva Is Why Ukraine\u2019s Kate Koval Left LSU Amid War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/LSUwbkbVsDuke2025_KateKoval_LSUAthletics.jpg\" alt=\"Kate Koval, LSU\" title=\"LSUwbkbVsDuke2025_KateKoval_LSUAthletics\"\/><br \/>\nFormer LSU forward Kate Koval (right), whose father is in the Ukrainian military, said she decided to leave the women&#8217;s basketball team and withdraw from LSU after Kim Mulkey signed a Russian player. (LSU photo)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By KACE KIESCHNICK, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former LSU center Kate Koval confirmed on Wednesday that her decision to leave the women\u2019s basketball program days before the start of classes last week was because coach Kim Mulkey had just signed Russian Anna Minaeva.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Koval addressed her departure in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DczDCjUzLh9\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram post<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis decision has not been easy,\u201d Koval, a 6-foot-5 sophomore center for LSU last season, wrote. \u201cWhile I understand and respect that roster decisions are a part of college basketball, I have to remain true to myself, my values and my country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">LSU announced that Mulkey signed Minaeva, a 17-year-old 6-foot-5 center from Moscow, Russia, on Aug. 14, although Koval\u2019s post indicates Mulkey planned to bring on Minaeva as of last April.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Koval, a native of Kyiv, Ukraine, said in the announcement that her father is a member of the Ukrainian military, and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has had a deeply personal impact on her and her family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFor me, this war is not distant or abstract,\u201d Koval said. \u201cPeople close to me have been killed and wounded in Russian attacks, and places where I grew up and first began playing basketball have been destroyed by missile strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Koval averaged 8.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.2 blocks in 35 games while shooting 56% from the floor last season after transferring from Notre Dame.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI felt I had found a home at LSU, and I am incredibly grateful for my teammates who became family, as well as my coaches, staff, professors and the entire LSU community. I will always cherish the relationships, experiences and memories that I made there,\u201d Koval wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mulkey and the team announced Koval\u2019s departure with a statement issued on Aug. 24 \u2013 just 10 days after Minaeva officially signed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cKate came to see me and told me that after much consideration, she will be leaving the program for personal reasons,\u201d Mulkey said in a statement at the time. \u201cWe will respect her privacy on her decision, but we had a long talk about it, and it was a hard decision for her. I know it is hard because she loves LSU. Kate is a great person. She has to do what she feels is right for her, and we fully support her in that. We all wish her the best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Koval was expected to start at center for LSU next season. The NCAA women\u2019s basketball transfer portal closed in April and is typically only re-opened for coaching changes. If Koval wants to play in the 2026-27 season, she will have to ask the NCAA to make an exception for her unique and extraordinary circumstance \u2013 a war between her homeland Ukraine and bordering Russia.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former LSU forward Kate Koval (right), whose father is in the Ukrainian military, said she decided to leave&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12666,12667,12668,12669],"class_list":["post-36441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-anna-minaeva","tag-kate-koval","tag-kim-mulkey","tag-lsu-womens-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}