Ray Tanner demands Mizzou AD retract accusations against Dawn Staley

South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner addressed comments made by his Missouri counterpart about USC women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley on Wednesday, saying Jim Sterk’s accusation that Staley encouraged an environment where Mizzou players allegedly were spit on and called racial epithets is “confusing” and “beyond understanding for me” and should be retracted.

Tanner spoke early Wednesday afternoon on 107.5 The Game, where he had previously been scheduled to do an interview Wednesday discussing the state of South Carolina athletics, and then again after Staley addressed the media in a press conference at Colonial Life Arena.

In a radio interview on Tuesday evening, Sterk discussed the heated Mizzou-USC women’s basketball game this past Sunday, which included a brief scrum and two ejections, and specifically spoke on allegations that South Carolina fans spit on Missouri players.

“It wasn’t a great atmosphere. It was really kind of unhealthy, if you will,” Sterk said. “We had players spit on and called the N-word and things like that.

“It was not a good environment, and unfortunately I think Coach Staley promoted that kind of atmosphere, and it’s unfortunate she felt she had to do that. It wasn’t good.”

Sterk’s comments assigning Staley blame for the alleged behavior touched off a firestorm, with multiple members of the women’s basketball community defending her and accusing Sterk of slander.

On Wednesday, Tanner repeatedly said he was “confused” by Sterk’s attack on Staley and detailed how USC went about investigating the spitting and racial epithet claims, saying saying that as soon as the athletics department was made aware of them, they interviewed staff at Colonial Life Arena and received no confirmed reports of the alleged behavior.

“We had an incident, so called, that we needed to check out and we did,” Tanner said. “We didn’t get any confirmation on that from seven people who were very closely involved in the situation.”

Tanner said he spoke to Sterk on Tuesday evening and again on Wednesday, but said it would be “unprofessional” for him to reveal the details on that conversation. However, he said that even after their conversation Wednesday he still “did not quite understand” the intent behind Sterk’s comments.

Tanner also said he has reached out to the SEC, though he declined to reveal the details of what was said there too.

“I have spoken to Commissioner (Greg) Sankey, I have spoken to others in the SEC office,” Tanner said. “This is just not an issue anyone is excited about dealing with. ... That’s where it is, I can’t share more than that with you. It’s being addressed. There’s conversation ongoing that things that have been said and where we are and hopefully we’ll get back to basketball real soon.”

The SEC has not responded to requests for comment.

While Tanner has been careful to not say the alleged fan misconduct never took place, he did praise Staley and the environment at Colonial Life Arena, a sharp contrast from the “unhealthy” atmosphere Sterk said he experienced.

“I don’t want to speak to anything that Jim Sterk said. All I can tell is that we have a tremendous environment for women’s basketball in Colonial Life Arena. What Coach Staley and her players have built over the years here culminated in a national championship. We’ve won a lot of games. It’s a great enviroment for young women, it’s a great environment for women’s basketball,” Tanner said.

“So I think that it’s obvious that we would disagree with some of the comments that were made about our environment, and maybe some comments that were directed at Coach Staley are beyond understanding for me. It goes without saying what she has done. ... So comments that were made, we don’t understand that and only Jim Sterk can explain his reasoning.”

Tanner also said that the situation has dragged on in but will likely be resolved soon. In an ideal world, he said, Sterk would retract his comments.

“We all have opinions. The thing that’s most important to me is that Coach Staley is comfortable with where it goes ... that’s she’s comfortable with where we end up in the next few hours and next couple of days with this. That’s the most important thing to me. But I do believe a retraction is necessary from Jim Sterk’s comments,” Tanner said.

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Ray Tanner demands Mizzou AD retract accusations against Dawn Staley."