LSU coach: ‘Dirty debutantes? Are you kidding me?’

ALBANY, N.Y. — Following LSU’s win over UCLA in Saturday’s NCAA women’s basketball regional semifinal, Tigers Coach Kim Mulkey was asked the following question:

Kim, your players kind of said it; they’ve kind of embraced this us-against-the-world mentality. Is that something you’ve embraced, as well? Do you tell them to enjoy having the black hat on, enjoy being who you are?

What is your message to them in terms of that us-against-the-world thing?

Here is the text of her answer:

“How many of you in here are mothers? Raise your hand if you’re a mother. How many of you in here are grandmothers. 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 L.A. Times. I’m not sure if that young man is in here.

“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 going to let you do, I’m not going to let you attack young people, and there were some things in this commentary, guys, that you should be offended by as women. It was so sexist, and they don’t even know it.

“It was good versus evil in that game today. Evil? 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 going to let you talk about 18- to 21-year-old kids in that tone. It was even sexist for this reporter to say UCLA was milk and cookies.

“Now, you women sit there and you keep your mouths shut if you want. I’m in the last third of my career, but I’m not going to let sexism continue. And if you don’t think that’s sexism, then you’re in denial.

“How dare people attack kids like that. You don’t have to like the way we play. You don’t have to like the way we trash talk. You don’t have to like any of that.

We’re good with that. But I can’t sit up here as a mother and a grandmother and a leader of young people and allow somebody to say that.”

LSU faces Iowa at 6 p.m. (CT) Monday, for a Final Four berth.