Iowa's coach, Lisa Bluder, compared rebounding against South Carolina to "going to a bar fight" before Iowa and South Carolina's matchup during the NCAA tournament. The Hawkeye's coach explained her statements against the Gamecocks by saying, "If you know me, I speak tongue in cheek a lot, and I was saying an analogy of you've got to rebound like you're in a bar fight. That's all! It doesn't say who's fighting, right? But that's fine. I've never been in a bar fight, by the way.”
South Carolina's coach Dawn Staley responded to the comments by stating, "We're not bar fighters. We're not thugs. We're not monkeys. We're not street fighters. This team exemplifies how you need to approach basketball on the court and off the court. And I do think that that's sometimes brought into the game, and it hurts." Staley's team won last year's championship game and had a perfect record this season until their defeat by Iowa during the tournament. Nevertheless, she praises her athletes for being hardworking and selfless players dedicated to the sport.
Reportedly the "bar fight" comments and other behaviors and gestures that Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark displayed during the tournament, which were deemed cocky, allegedly provoked Angel Reese from LSU to taunt Clark during the fourth quarter of the championship game. These actions, which have gone viral, show Reese pointing to her ring finger and doing the same hand wave that Clark has been doing all tournament. Basketball fans have mixed feelings about this. Some feel Reese went above and beyond to taunt Clark, and some fans say Clark teases other players a lot, so Reese's actions were a fair exchange. Next year should be interesting. All three teams should have a high chance of returning to the tournament, depending on their lineups.
Comments