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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. — LSU coach Kim Mulkey rips a Los Angeles Times article that portrayed her team's matchup against UCLA as a “reckoning” of good versus evil, calling it “sexist” and “terrible.” He criticized it as “wrong”.
In the postgame press conference after Saturday's 78-69 win, Mulkey said the team was embracing a “world-beating mentality” and whether he told his players to “put on the black hats and have fun.” I received a question.
In response, she said the LA Times sent her an article describing her team as “dirty debutantes” and UCLA as “milk and cookies.” The article further described the matchup as “good versus evil, justice versus evil, inclusive versus divisive.”
“You can criticize the coach all you want,” Mulkey said. “That's our job. You can come at us and say you're the worst coach in America. I hate you, I hate all of you. That's what we expect. It comes with the territory.”
“But the one thing I'm not going to let you guys do is I'm not going to let you attack young people. And there were some things in this comment that I, as a woman, should be offended by. It was very sexist. Today's match was good versus evil. Evil? Did you call us dirty debutantes? Are you kidding me?
“We're not going to have kids talking about 18- to 21-year-olds in that tone.”
Earlier that day, the much-anticipated profile of Mulkey was published in the Washington Post. She called the article a “hit piece” in her statement last week in anticipation of its publication. She has repeatedly said that Mulkey is not afraid to speak out against what he thinks is wrong.
In her view, the LA Times article crossed a line.
“We're not going to let sexism continue,” Mulkey said. “And if you don't think it's sexist, then you're in denial. People often attack kids like that. They don't have to like the way we play. You don’t have to like the way we trash talk.’ You don’t have to like any of it. That's fine with us.
“But I can't sit here as a mother and a grandmother and a youth leader and let someone say something like that, because, folks, it's wrong. I don't want to see that.” I know sexism when I read about it. That was terrible.'”
LSU players have repeatedly said that they feel as if people are rooting for them to lose and that people don't like them because they speak their minds openly. These comments were repeated during the players' portion of the postgame press conference before Mulkey was given a chance to speak.
“We're good villains,” forward Angel Reese said. “Everyone wants to beat LSU. Everyone wants to be LSU. You have to understand we're not a normal basketball team. We're just changing the game. .”
“We're working on the unknown. I like modeling and doing other things because I get to be off the court as well as on the court. Both. can.
“Frauge” [Johnson] You can do both.Aneesa [Morrow] You can do both. We can all do both. That's what people don't believe. They don't think we're focused, but every time we step between that line every night, we prove that we are. ”
