Cori Close apologizes for sharing LA Times article following Kim Mulkey's criticism

UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close apologized for sharing an LA Times article following criticism from LSU coach Kim Mulkey.

The opinion piece essentially pitted UCLA against LSU as a hero vs. villain arc, painting the Tigers as venomous and not good for the game. The Bruins were hailed as the darlings in this matchup.

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“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 wrote in a statement. “I made a mistake.”

Regarding the Los Angeles Times column. pic.twitter.com/kzZThRTigt

— Cori Close (@CoachCoriClose) March 30, 2024

Close continued, apologizing for jumping the gun before reading the story.

“I reposted that article only after reading the headline, not the contents of the column,” Close wrote. “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 came together because of basketball. I hope that I have proven over time with my behaviors and choices that this was an isolated mistakes and not the intention of my heart. My sincerest apologies for anything that was communicated otherwise.”

Mulkey turned her attention to an article from the Los Angeles Times that painted the Tigers as the “villains” of women’s college basketball. She called out the language used in the article for being “sexist” as it referred to LSU players as “dirty debutantes” and UCLA players as “milk and cookies.”

Mulkey delivered a passionate statement against the article, standing up for her players.

“How many of you in here are mothers? How many of you in here are grandmothers?” she began. “Damn, I’m the only one. I hope this kind of answers your question. These young ladies — I saw an article. I didn’t see it, someone sent it to me. It was a commentary from the LA Times. You can criticize coaches all you want. That’s our business. You can come at us and say you’re the worst coach in America. I hate you. I hate everything about you. We expect that. It comes with the territory. But the one thing I’m not gonna let you do, I’m not gonna let you attack young people. There were some things in this commentary that you should be offended by as women. It was so sexist and they don’t even know it.

“It was good vs. evil in that game today. Evil? He called us dirty debutantes. Take your phone out right now and google dirty debutantes and tell me what it says. Dirty debutantes? Are you kidding me? I’m not gonna let you talk about 18-21 year old kids in that tone. It was even sexist for this reporter to say UCLA was milk and cookies. You women sit there and keep your mouth shut if you want. I’m in the last third of my career, but I’m not gonna let sexism continue. If you don’t think that’s sexism then you’re in denial. How dare people attack kids like that.”

This story will be updated