Jeez, I thought Geno Auriemma of the UConn Lady Huskies was bad with his whining when his team lost. He's now got company. Enter head coach Kim Mulkey of the Baylor Lady Bears. Riding a long winning streak and slightly favored to win another national title -- her nationally #1 ranked team got edged out and eliminated by 1 point in the NCAA women's tournament by Louisville, merely a #5 seed -- and a whopping 24 point underdog at that.
In the post-game press conference the lovely, if hardly gracious, Ms. M tried to blame the refs, even at her admitted risk of being fined for doing so. She even went so far as to encourage reporters to ask questions in that regard. This, despite her also admitting she couldn't see a controversial play late in the game because it happened at the other end of the court from where she happened to be standing. Well gee. If she couldn't see it, but the call went against her team, then it must be wrong somehow -- right?
Watching and listening to Mulkey chewing on her sour grapes, y'all, perhaps we're supposed to believe this was a massive conspiracy against Waco, the likes of which hasn't been seen since David Koresh and his Branch Davidians got smoked out by the feds in 1993.
Or maybe there's another possibility, however remote. Heaven forbid, could it be the Lady Bears, despite all their talent and expectations, just got beat fair and square? It happens.
Mulkey also went on to lecture the reporters they better not question, much less put any responsibility on the players for the loss, but rather put it all on her shoulders. That sounded a lot like some good old-fashioned Texas yee-hah logic at work again. If you're not fer us, you must be agin us. We don't lose. We get jobbed by those with other obvious biases. And even if we lose -- under no circumstances shall the people that actually played the game take any responsibility.
Well, guess what? That might work in high school where the coaches take the heat while shielding their youthful players from too much negative scrutiny after a bad game. Only compliments are allowed, and perhaps justifiably so. But a head coach of a high profile college program should know better. If they want to dance on the big stage and accept all the accolades that come with success, then they have to be willing to face the not-so-good music when things don't go their way. It goes with the territory and the reporters have a job to do too. Mulkey was horribly misguided when she tried to prompt the hopefully unbiased press in attendance into seeing things her way. She should be ashamed of herself.
Thing is, it seems there's no such thing as shame in Texas. In recent years past -- consider a world famous cyclist, perhaps the most dominant baseball pitcher of our time, and even a few very high ranking politicians, to name a few. Despite mountains of evidence against them, much of it gathered by totally impartial and objective people -- they will never flat-out admit they were wrong.
Yippee-ki-ay, and the beat goes on.
Given that apparent on-going pervasive attitude in the Lone Star state, we likely shouldn't expect any better from Mulkey.
Ah heck. Once her 6'8' freak and superstar player Brittney Griner disappears into women's pro basketball somewhere, Mulkey's currently vaunted program might well fade into oblivion faster than the above mentioned Branch Davidians.
But I'd still pay big bucks to see her and Geno in a mud wrestling contest.
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