Elite Eight recap: Both familiar and fresh faces march on
Baylor women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey called for an end to coronavirus testing in both the men’s and women’s Final Four during her postgame news conference after the No. 2 seed Bears lost a heartbreaker to top-seeded Connecticut, 69-67, in the NCAA tournament River Walk Region final at Alamodome in San Antonio.
Mulkey made her remarks without being asked about testing.
“I don’t think my words will matter, but after the games today and tomorrow, there are four teams left on the men’s side and the women’s side,” Mulkey said. “They need to dump the covid testing. Wouldn’t it be a shame to keep covid testing, and then you got kids that end up testing positive or something, and then they don’t get to play in the Final Four? So you need to just forget the covid test and let the four teams that are playing in each Final Four battle it out.”
Mulkey was sidelined for the first half of January after contracting the coronavirus. When she returned, she said she felt “uncomfortable” coaching but realized the season would go on amid the pandemic.
“It’s called the almighty dollar,” she said at the time. “The NCAA has to have the almighty dollar from the men’s tournament. The almighty dollar is more important than the health and welfare of me, the players or anybody else.”
On Monday, the Bears trailed by five points with 59 seconds left in the fourth quarter before Dijonai Carrington scored four straight points to get them within 68-67 with 18 seconds to play. But Carrington had her jumper blocked in the closing seconds amid what appeared contact by the Huskies’ Aaliyah Edwards, though officials did not blow the whistle.
It was a controversial no-call, with many observers, including NBA superstar LeBron James, pleading for a call.
