Golden
When her team won in Austin last week on national television, Mulkey rankled Texas coach Karen Aston’s feathers when she told ESPN that “there isn’t a new sheriff in town just yet,” referring to the surging Texas women. It was viewed as vintage Mulkey, the two-time national champion who has long had a reputation for not holding her tongue.
Five days later after a win over Texas Tech — the 500th of her career — Mulkey grabbed the public address microphone at Waco’s Ferrell Center and told the crowd that if someone says they would never send their daughter to Baylor, “you just knock them in the face.” Then after calling Baylor the “best school in America,” she literally dropped the mic on the court. She later said postgame that the problems at Baylor “are no different than the problems at any other school in America. Period.”
That was a real reach that sent a worse message.
She has since expressed regret over her comments, but the damage is done. Mulkey is doing the school no favors. Her actions and words came across as ignorant to the women who were victims of sexual assault on that campus and their families. Besides, where was she when Art Briles and the former university leadership were being held to the fire months ago? Speaking now is doing way more harm than good.
As a result, the new campus leadership, which we hope was quietly taking steps to change the culture, is now faced with more scrutiny. Baylor got yet another segment on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” investigative news show. Another day, another embarrassing episode in Waco. The Texas men’s lost season is on Shaka Smart. The coach believes it’s his job to breathe life into his team. Of course it is, but the question has to be: Who is breathing life into Shaka?
“Nobody, really. It’s about the guys,” Smart said after Texas’ fifth straight loss on Saturday, this one coming 77-67 to a soon-to-be-topranked Kansas team which clinched its 13th straight Big 12 regular-season title.
One guy it isn’t about is suspended sophomore guard Tevin Mack, who was finally granted his release on Monday. Not sure what took so long to let Mack go, but his is just another unfortunate event in a season of lowlights.
Smart’s team has played with commendable effort the entire season, but the familiar refrain has been one of hanging in there early but not being good enough to close the deal at the end. Commendable effort is nice, but this is a bottom-line business and the results are unacceptable — 10-19 overall, 4-12 in Big 12 play.
It’s been an historically awful season. This team realized long ago that this wasn’t going to end with the players gathered around a flat screen, munching on pizza while waiting to hear their name called on Selection Sunday.
For now, the head coach has to keep his chin up and not give any indication that his confidence is shaken, even if it’s obvious that it is.
“He’s handling it good,” guard Andrew Jones said. “He keeps the spirits high in the locker room and makes sure we are motivated in every way possible. He hasn’t killed anybody’s spirits on this team.”
With two games left and then what is likely to be a brief stay in the Big 12 tourney — Texas is 0-13 in games played away from the Erwin Center — Smart needs to find a way to avoid a long losing streak over the final month hanging over his players’ heads heading into the offseason. It may not seem like much, but improving to 11-19 and 5-12 with a win on the road over Texas Tech is much more important than it appears on the surface.
But above all else, the ultimate responsibility starts with Smart.