The LSU women’s basketball team played Iowa in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in a rematch of the same game last year, with Iowa winning the game yet again. This year, however, viewers online noted that the LSU team headed off the court shortly before the game, meaning that they were in the locker room when the National Anthem was played, as has been the LSU team’s typical schedule for the season.
Predictably, that outraged many people, particularly conservatives who were seeing the clip on X (formerly Twitter) of the Iowa team standing on the court and holding hands for the Anthem with the LSU team nowhere in sight. Conservative commenter Benny Johnson, for example, wrote: “LSU Women’s Basketball Team skipped the National Anthem Iowa stood proud LSU just got their a** beat With the entire stadium cheering against them Season over Let this be a lesson to all players: the cringy, selfish woke athlete moment is OVER.”
After the fire and fury of online conservative criticism, the LSU coach, Kim Mulkey, responded to the criticism and said, “Honestly, I don’t even know when the anthem was played. We kind of have a routine when (our players are) on the floor, and they come off at the 12-minute mark (prior to the game).” In other words, LSU’s pre-game schedule means it is never on the court for the anthem. Such is what sports reporter Chesa Bouche confirmed, writing, “LSU is never on the court for the National Anthem.”
People online didn’t like that reasoning, questioning whether always missing the National Anthem because of a pre-game routine was any better than just walking away for this instance. One commenter, for example, responding to Mulkey’s comments, said, “I don’t even know what time the anthem is played?!!! That’s supposed to be better ? Wow.”
Another wrote, in response to her comments about LSU’s routine meaning the team is always off the court for the pre-game National Anthem, “And that routine is leaving the floor prior to the playing of the United States National Anthem. Damn LSU!” Still another said, “That response is wrong. Why not have a routine to stay on the court to make sure you hear the national anthem?”
One particularly furious commenter argued that federal aid should be revoked from schools with teams that have such routines, saying, in response to Mulkey’s comments, “She was correct- they have a regular, disrespectful routine of leaving the court when the national anthem is played. In return there should be a routine policy of not providing federal aid to colleges that allow this and for students who do not respect the country enough that provides it. Let a country they respect more pay for their education”
On the middle ground of things, one commenter said that his team was never on the field for the anthem when he played football, but the coach would ensure they were respectful inside the locker room. He said, “When I played football we never were on the field for the national anthem, we were in the locker room, our coach would stop when it was played and asked us to be quiet and our coach was white, long before protests that was 2010.”
The Iowa team, for its part, did remain on the court for the anthem. Watch the incident here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
