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The UCLA women's basketball team took on LSU women's basketball on Saturday with a spot in the Elite 8 on the line. LSU ended up winning 78-69 in what was an outstanding game, but a lot of drama came off the court with this matchup as well. LSU head coach Kim Mulkey criticized an LA Times article that was written before the game that called the Tigers “basketball villains” and “dirty debutantes.” UCLA head coach Cori Close shared the article earlier this week, and she now regrets the decision.
Cori Close gave the article a retweet when it first came out, but she claims that she didn't actually read anything besides the headline before sharing it. She saw the comments that Kim Mulkey made about the article that bashed her team, and Close posted an apology on Twitter.
“Earlier this weekend, I had been doing a quick scroll on social media and I had reposted a column from the Los Angeles Times leading into our Sweet 16 game,” Close said in a tweet. “I made a mistake. I reposted that article only after reading the headline, not the contents of the column. In an effort to increase coverage for our game, I shared it and went back to try to stay focused on my task at hand. I always want to be a person that is about growing our game and building up the people in it. I made a huge mistake in reposting without reading it first, and I am very sorry for that. I would never want to promote anything that tears down a group of people in our great game. I do not condone racism, sexism or inflammatory comments aimed at individuals in our community. I apologize to Kim Mulkey and the entire LSU women's basketball program; I only want to grow our game and have a positive impact on the people who come together because of basketball. I hope that I have proven over time with my behaviors and choices that this was an isolated mistake and not the intention of my heart. My sincerest apologies for anything that communicated otherwise.”
LSU beat UCLA to advance to the Elite 8
In the actual matchup on the court, Kim Mulkey and LSU women's basketball took down Cori Close and UCLA women's basketball 78-69, and it was a great game. It was back and forth all the way, but the Tigers made the winning plays down the stretch and found a way to get the win.
Now, UCLA is done, and LSU is moving on to the Elite 8 to take on number one seed Iowa. The Tigers and Hawkeyes squared off last season in the national title game, and we will get now get to see a rematch on Sunday.
If anything, the LA Times article has turned into more motivation for LSU, and if Kim Mulkey and her team want even more, there are plenty of other negative pieces on the head coach out there. Mulkey had a long message about a Washington Post article that painted her in a bad way recently, and that article was published on Saturday.
A lot of people outside the LSU program don't like Mulkey, but her Tigers are a good basketball team. They just took down two seed UCLA women's basketball, and they now have a chance to end Caitlin Clark and Iowa's season for a second straight year.
