Baylor women's basketball Coach Kim Mulkey came out swinging Saturday night after the Bears clinched the Big 12 regular-season title.
At least one media member said Mulkey should stop throwing haymakers and go back to her corner.
But Mulkey, an ultrasuccessful coach and winner of two NCAA championships, addressed fans at the Ferrell Center with microphone in hand after an 86-48 victory over Texas Tech, her 500th victory at Baylor.
Mulkey, 54, defended the school, the administration, and anybody interested in having their children attend the Waco, Texas, university in wake of nonstop controversy that has erupted from accusations of sexual assault against its football players.
So far, Art Briles (football coach), Ken Starr (school president), Ian McCaw (athletic director) and Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford have lost their jobs, and it can't be easy for Mulkey to sell the Baylor program to a prospect's parents, despite her record of 500-94 during the past 17 years.
Mulkey turned what was supposed a celebration of a milestone victory into a desperate plea for people to stand up and defend Baylor, to lace up boxing gloves if necessary, especially if they hear somebody say they would never send their daughter to Baylor.
"You knock them right in the face," Mulkey told Baylor fans.
She went on to call Baylor the "best damn school in America" and insisted "the problems we have at Baylor are no different than the problems at any other school in America."
Gary Parrish of CBS Sports.com was offended by Mulkey's outburst.
"Simply put, she's wrong on both points," Parrish wrote, "because A) Baylor is not the 'best damn school in America' by any way such things are measured, and B) literally no other school in America has problems like Baylor's problems.
"She said she's 'tired of hearing it' and that people should 'move on [and] find another story to write.' That's an unbelievable public statement that's ignorant to the fact that what the rest of us are tired of is hearing men and women in positions of power at Baylor tell everybody to move on and stop worrying about all of the sexual assaults that allegedly involved Baylor student-athletes."
Ready to rumble
A group led by boxing promoter Lou DiBella, who once represented former middleweight champion and one-time Arkansas sports hero Jermain Taylor, announced it was purchasing the Montgomery (Ala.) Biscuits, the Class AA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.
DiBella, who spends plenty of time in Alabama as the promoter of undefeated heavyweight boxer Deontay Wilder, sounded confident about the endeavor.
"Minor league baseball is about fun, and it's about relationships," DiBella said.
The Biscuits, who relocated to Montgomery from Orlando in 2004, play in a Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium which has a 7,000 seating capacity and was built with a $32 million bond issue funded by a 2.5-percent increase in lodging tax and leasing revenue from the Biscuits.
"The group is pretty impressive," former owner Sherrie Myers said of DiBella and friends. "Their resumes really stand out."
Sports on 02/27/2017