COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley says she stands by her decision to cancel two games with BYU, despite a report that says there’s no evidence the incident that led her to scrub the events ever took place.
Staley issued a statement late Friday, hours after BYU said an investigation into allegations their fans engaged in racial heckling and uttered racial slurs at a Black female Duke volleyball player last month found no concrete proof to back up the event.
The initial reports of the event disturbed Staley, whose team is nearly all-Black and female. She said earlier that she vetted all angles and slept on it a few nights before deciding last week to cancel the Gamecocks’ opening home game against the Cougars on November 7 and their away game set for 2023.
Her move was not without some criticism, including from a group of conservative South Carolina House members who questioned Staley’s decision in a letter to the university’s athletics department.
“I continue to stand by my position,” Staley said in a statement. “After my personal research, I made a decision for the well-being of my team. I regret that my university, my athletics director Ray Tanner and others got drawn into the criticism of a choice that I made.”
South Carolina has not named a replacement team for the game that was canceled.
BYU said it reached out to more than 50 people who attended the event, including athletic department personnel and student-athletes from both schools, event security and management and fans who were in the arena. It also reviewed audio and video recordings and raw footage from the match.
As a result of the investigation, the university said it has lifted a ban on a fan who was identified as directing racial slurs toward Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson during the match. It also apologized to the fan for any hardship the ban caused.
Duke athletic director Nina King issued a statement standing by Richardson and the rest of her team.
“The 18 members of the Duke University volleyball team are exceptionally strong women who represent themselves, their families, and Duke University with the utmost integrity,” she said Friday after BYU issued its statement. “We unequivocally stand with and champion them, especially when their character is called into question. Duke Athletics believes in respect, equality and inclusiveness, and we do not tolerate hate and bias.”
BYU said it remains committed to rooting out racism wherever it is found. The school also said it understands some will criticize their investigation as being selective in its review.
“To the contrary, we have tried to be as thorough as possible in our investigation, and we renew our invitation for anyone with evidence contrary to our findings to come forward and share it,” the school said.