DALLAS – Dawn Staley has heard enough.
The South Carolina women’s basketball coach was asked about how her team is publicly labeled for their physical style of play after being upset by Iowa at the American Airlines Center in the Final Four, 77-73. Staley set the record straight on her team, which she says is “an example of how to approach basketball on the court and off.”
“We’re not bar fighters. We’re not thugs. We’re not monkeys. We’re not street fighters,” Staley said. “I think that’s sometimes brought into play, and it hurts.”
Before the Final Four game with Iowa, coach Lisa Bluder said someone described her rebounding against South Carolina as “going to a bar fight.” She was not the first coach to comment on the Gamecocks’ style of play. UConn coach Geno Auriemma criticized South Carolina’s physicality after the Huskies lost to it in February.
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Staley then revealed she was told members of the national media made comments at an event Thursday that she suggested were unfair or disrespectful. They were comments Staley said she intended to discuss whether they won or lost on Friday.
“Some people in the media, when you meet in public, say things about our team, and you’re listened to, and it’s brought back to me,” Staley said. “And these are the people who write for our sport nationally. So you can’t like our team and you can’t like me. But if you say things you probably should say at home on the phone or in public text and you’ll be heard and you’re a national writer for our sport — it just confirms what we already know. So watch what you say when you’re in public and you’re talking about my team in particular.”
Staley begged the chamber of media members not to judge her team by their skin color, but by the way they play the game.
“You have young lives that really — if you really knew them, if you really knew them, like you really want to get to know other players who represent this game, you would think otherwise,” Staley said. “Maybe you don’t like how we play the game, maybe you don’t like it, that’s the way we play. That’s the way I coach.
“I’m not changing. We’ve found success in it, and maybe some days like today we end up on the losing side of the stick. But guess what? We live to see another day. We live to see the comeback next year and try to do this again because I’m not changing.”
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Dawn Staley calls media, ‘bar fight’ comments after Final Four loss
