One day after calling Oregon freshman forward Louis King "queen" during their NCAA tournament game, UC Irvine coach Russell Turner apologized for his remark.
"Coach Turner reached out today to express his apology to Louis and the King family, as well as the staff and program for in game comments," Oregon said in a tweet on Monday. "He reiterated they were not meant to offend. All parties accepted the apology and are moving past the issue."
After Oregon advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 73-54 win over the Anteaters, Turner admitted that he called King "queen" during the contest as a way to "irritate him."
"I was saying double-team 'queen' to try to see if I could irritate him. And I did," Turner said at a news conference. "And I kept talking to my team about what we wanted to do. We were calling him 'queen' because I knew it might irritate him because of how important he is to their team -- the queen in chess. It was a play on his name of King."
Turner talked to King in the handshake line after the game and later told reporters that "I wanted to let him know that what I'd done was out of respect."
King finished with 16 points and four rebounds on Sunday. He was named to the Pac-12 all-freshman team and was an all-league honorable mention selection this season.
