South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley set the internet abuzz this week after she said publicly that trans athletes who consider themselves women should be sanctioned to play on women's basketball teams.
Those comments, which came on Saturday during a press conference prior to Sunday's championship match-up against Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, also led former NCAA swimmer and women's sports advocate Riley Gaines to say Staley lost a "once-in-a-lifetime" chance to stand with female athletes.
"[S]he blew it. And, truthfully, my guess is she's OK with it until her team is defeated by one or more men playing on the opposite team," Gaines said on Monday's "Fox & Friends."
Staley made the comments to OutKick reporter Dan Zaksheske when he queried her about whether transgender athletes should be allowed to play on women's college basketball teams. That was before Staley's Gamecocks defeated Iowa on Sunday to win the NCAA's women’s national championship.
"I'm of the opinion of if you're a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That's my opinion," Staley said. "You want me to go deeper?"
Staley's comments drew ire from more than just Gaines.
"Great question. Horrific answer," tweeted conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly. "And this coach makes her dereliction twd the fairness & safety of women all about HER ... yeah, we get upset when girls/women are endangered by social justice warriors who are SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THEM."
Political commentator Robby Starbuck said he bets some of the girls on Staley's team disagree with her comments.
"She deserves every bit of criticism she's about to get for this lunacy," Starbuck tweeted.
Meanwhile, on Saturday when Iowa coach Lisa Bluder was asked the same question by the media a few hours after Staley, she neglected to answer directly.
"My focus is on tomorrow's game," said Bluder, adding that the trans issue was an important one for "another time."
For her part, Staley took several seconds before she responded to Zaksheske's question. Gaines, who also serves as an OutKick contributor, said that her silence and hesitation spoke volumes as to how she really feels.
"... I think she knew she had to be politically correct, and I know about as good as anyone that that pressure exists and it's real," Gaines said.
"The bottom line is she knows perfectly well that men's basketball is a totally different sport than women's basketball," Gaines said. "That's obvious by the speed of the game, the size of the ball ... the sheer amount of layups compared to dunks when a player gets a fast break in men's basketball, the distance of the three-point line, the list goes on."
Gaines praised Staley as a coach, noting her love and respect for her and calling her record "unprecedented" but said, "She's either proving herself to be entirely incompetent or a sellout."
"It always sucks seeing a well-established woman who has broken barriers for women in sports turn into a sellout in the name of 'inclusion,'" Gaines said. "The women's category was created to be intentionally exclusive by design. Go Hawks."
Staley apparently didn't take kindly to Gaines' comments with Gaines on Monday posting a screenshot showing that Staley had blocked her on X. OutKick founder Clay Travis said Staley had blocked him as well.
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