Baylor's Mulkey apologizes for 'very poor choice of words'

Baylor women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey expressed regret Sunday for comments she made a day earlier in defending the university against critics over the sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the school.

The main point of contention with what Mulkey said Saturday was her stating that if anyone said they wouldn't send their daughter to Baylor, "you knock them right in the face."

"I hate that I used the remark about punching them in the face," Mulkey told espnW's Mechelle Voepel. "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."

"My point was, 'Please don't paint, with a broad brush, the women at Baylor,'" Mulkey added. "I didn't think about what I was going to say. I looked at my players, and the little girls and the women who are cheering for them. And I spoke with a lot of emotion."

In Mulkey's postgame comments Saturday, she also said she was "tired of hearing" about the scandal, and that it was time to "move on" and "write another story." On Sunday, she clarified that those words were meant for a specific reporter and in no way directed at the victims involved in the scandal.

"Not only do I sympathize with victims, I am angry about the way victims were treated at this university," Mulkey said. "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."