Coach Kim Mulkey apologized for her "knock them in the face" comments she made after her women's basketball season finale while trying to defend Baylor University in its long-running sexual assault scandal.
Mulkey won her 500th game as head coach Saturday as Baylor, ranked No. 4 in country, handily beat Texas Tech 86-48 in the team's regular season finale. But it was her comments after the game that made headlines, reported the Dallas Morning News.
"If somebody around you and they ever say 'I will never send my daughter to Baylor, you knock them right in the face," Mulkey told a cheering crowd at Baylor's Ferrell Center. "Because these kids are on this campus. I work here. My daughter went to school here and it's the damn best school in America."
Mulkey didn't appear to be in an apologetic mood in the post-game news conference after her comments, according to a video tweeted by KXXV-TV.
"I'm just tired of hearing about it," Mulkey said, noted the KXXV –TV video. "… This is a great institution. The problems we have at Baylor are no different than the problems at any other school in America. Period. Find another story to write."
Baylor has been under a cloud since the firing of football coach Art Briles in 2016 and the resignations of university president Ken Starr, athletic director Ian McCaw and Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford, said ESPN.
Pending lawsuits against Baylor allege some 52 sexual assaults committed by 31 members of the school's then nationally-ranked football team.
"I hate that I used the remark about punching them in the face," Mulkey told ESPN Sunday. "That was not literal. I was trying to make a point, to be firm in what you are saying back at them. I'm not a violent person. I apologize for the very poor choice of words."
The coach who has led Baylor to two national championships told ESPN that the news conference comments were directed at a particular reporter who she accused of "digging and digging" at her and were not meant to marginalize the alleged sexual assault victims at the school.
"Not only do I sympathize with victims, I am angry about the way victims were treated at this university," Mulkey told ESPN. "It is horrible, horrible anytime someone does not take care of a victim. Even one sexual assault is too many. Nobody is dismissing what happened here. I want us to get to the bottom of it."