A former Washington Post columnist has labelled Kim Mulkey ‘over-controlling’ and backed his former employer’s forthcoming piece on the LSU women’s basketball coach to be ‘100 per cent accurate’.

Mulkey lashed out at and threatened legal action against the newspaper on Saturday, saying it has spent two years pursuing a ‘hit piece’ about her.

She revealed the Post gave her a deadline to answer questions last week while the defending national champion Tigers were preparing for the women’s NCAA Tournament.

Mulkey vowed she would ‘sue the Washington Post if they publish a false story about me.’

Award-winning reporter Kent Babb has since confirmed that he is working on a profile of Mulkey, but declined further comment.

Tony Kornheiser, who worked for the Post between 1979 and 2008, defended his former employer on ESPN on Monday night after calling Mulkey a ‘great and terrific coach.’

‘She sees the press as an enemy, which happens a lot in America these days,’ he said.

‘She is publicly defiant, she is somewhat over-controlling, she does not want to be covered in the way that champions are covered, which is in-depth.

‘Kent Babb has a story in the Washington Post, he’s a terrific writer and reporter.

‘I know that you join me in thinking it will be 100 per cent accurate and it will not be defamatory.’

Babb has been working for The Washington Post for 14 years. Three times, his features have been named best in the nation by The Associated Press Sports Editors.

Babb also has written two books: ‘Across the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City,’ and ‘Not A Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson.’

Mulkey is in her third season at LSU, which signed her to a 10-year, $36million extension after she won her fourth national title as a coach last season.

She also won three with Baylor, along with two as a player at Louisiana Tech and a gold medal as a player for Team USA at the 1984 Olympic Games.

Speaking on Saturday about the forthcoming piece, she angrily said: ‘This reporter has been working on a story about me for two years.

‘After two years of trying to get me to sit with him for an interview, he contacts LSU on Tuesday, as we were getting ready for the first-round game of this [NCAA] tournament, with more than a dozen questions, demanding a response by Thursday right before we’re scheduled to tip-off. Are you kidding me?

‘This was a ridiculous deadline that LSU and I could not possibly meet, and the reporter knew it. It’s just an attempt to prevent me from commenting and an attempt to distract us from this tournament. It ain’t gonna work, buddy.

‘Unfortunately, this is part of a pattern that goes back years. I told this reporter two years ago that I didn’t appreciate the hit job he wrote on [LSU football coach] Brian Kelly, and that’s why I wasn’t going to do an interview with him.

‘After that, the reporter called two former college coaches of mine and left multiple messages that he was with me in Baton Rouge to get them to call him back — trying to trick these coaches into believing that I was working with the Washington Post on a story.’

Mulkey’s LSU team have safely made it through to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, where they will play UCLA on Saturday.

The Tigers have already beaten Rice in the first round round and Middle Tennessee in the second round.