Iowa coach Lisa Bluder brushes off Dawn Staley's frustration about 'bar fight' comment

DALLAS — After South Carolina women's basketball suffered its only loss of the season to Iowa in the Final Four on Friday, Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley aired her frustration with the way her team's play style was described leading up to the game.

Staley specifically cited a comment made Tuesday by Iowa coach Lisa Bluder that described rebounding against the Gamecocks as "going to a bar fight." Bluder said Saturday that she had not seen Staley's postgame comments and brushed off the South Carolina coach's offense at the characterization of her team's physicality.

"If you know me, I speak tongue in cheek a lot, and I was saying an analogy of you've got to rebound like you're in a bar fight," Bluder said. "That's all. It doesn't say who's fighting, right? But that's fine. I've never been in a bar fight, by the way."

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Bluder's response did not address the heart of Staley's complaints about the narratives surrounding South Carolina's style of play. Staley said after the Gamecocks' loss that she felt public descriptions of her team as "bar fighters" and "thugs" have an impact on the way officials call fouls against the team.

"We're not bar fighters. We're not thugs. We're not monkeys. We're not street fighters," Staley said. "This team exemplifies how you need to approach basketball on the court and off the court. And I do think that that's sometimes brought into the game, and it hurts."