When Michelle Obama stated, “Once they go low, we go excessive,” she wasn’t speaking about Kim Mulkey. Class and decorum have by no means been her factor. On Sunday, No. 1 South Carolina remained undefeated and received its eighth SEC event title after defeating LSU, 79-72. It was a rematch of their January showdown in Baton Rouge, through which South Carolina pulled out a tricky highway win in enemy territory, 76-70.
They’re the 2 finest groups within the SEC. They’re the final two groups to win nationwide championships. They don’t like one another. And their coaches are polar opposites. So when a battle befell within the recreation on Sunday, we already knew the responses from the ladies who lead these packages had been destined to be dissimilar.
“I simply wish to apologize to the basketball group,” Staley stated to ESPN in the course of the post-game interview. “I wish to apologize for us taking part in a component in that, that’s not who we’re. That’s not what we’re about.”
Moments after a battle that featured a male fan hopping over a railing and the scorer’s desk to probably get entangled, which led to a number of ejections and solely 11 mixed gamers from each groups being eligible to take part within the closing minutes, Staley dealt with the scenario like a professional. She took full accountability for her group’s actions, added context and nuance, did her finest to guard ladies’s school basketball, and apologized to all who had been concerned on the opposite facet, in addition to informing us that apologies had been made to her from the LSU facet.
“We’ll get higher (at) dealing with conditions like this. So, I wish to apologize for our South Carolina ladies’s basketball group,” Staley stated on the microphone to the group in the course of the trophy presentation. “LSU is a superb group. They’re our defending nationwide champions. And I received’t be shocked if we’re ready, each of us, to characterize in Cleveland for the nationwide championship recreation. I welcome that.”
Unsurprisingly, and as anticipated, it was a unique story with Mulkey.
“It’s ugly, it’s not good, nobody needs to be part of that,” she stated after the sport. “However I’ll inform you this, I want [Cardoso] would’ve pushed Angel Reese. When you’re 6-8, don’t push any individual that little. That was uncalled for for my part. Let these two women who had been jawing, allow them to go at it.”
As an alternative of calming issues down, a white lady poured gasoline on a scenario that concerned a battle between Black ladies. Mulkey’s privilege someway discovered a method to shine brighter than a kind of cheesy outfits she wears on the sidelines. She was so dangerous on Sunday that she hung out within the postgame press convention informing us that she didn’t know the principles, as she was questioning about potential punishments for the coaches.
“However my query is: I don’t actually know the principles, why weren’t the coaches tossed in the event that they left the bench? Wouldn’t that be a hell of an ending. However I assume it’s simply the gamers that depart the bench space. I don’t know.”
If you recognize something about Mulkey or ladies’s school basketball, you’re conscious she has a historical past of claiming dumb issues out loud. They usually aren’t simply errors within the second, that is simply who she is. From not supporting Brittney Griner and allegedly telling her gamers to not be open publicly about their sexuality, there’s an enormous pile of receipts in the case of Mulkey. This is similar lady who defended Baylor, needed the NCAA to put off COVID-19 testing, and all however pleaded to be invited to the White Home to see a president who had made it clear that he wasn’t keen on inviting ladies’s championships groups to the Oval Workplace.
Who did what to who on Sunday isn’t almost as necessary as who stated what, and the way they stated it after the sport. When school children battle, we glance to the adults to be the leaders within the room. Daybreak Staley offered herself as an elder stateswoman of the game. Kim Mulkey behaved like a clown. Buckle up, the NCAA Event goes to be wildly entertaining. Joyful Ladies’s Historical past Month!