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UC Irvine Coach Called Oregon’s Louis King ‘Queen’ During NCAA Tournament Game

UC Irvine tries to explain why he called Oregon forward Louis King 'Queen' during NCAA tournament game loss.

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UC Irvine tried everything they could to try to slow down Oregon during its second round game on Sunday, including the old tactic of name-calling the opponent.

This time it didn't work, as UC Irvine set its sights on trying to get into the head of Oregon forward Louis King by calling him "Queen."

"Yeah, I'll tell you," Turner said after Irvine's 73–54 loss, which broke the Anteaters' 17-game win streak. "I was saying Double Team Queen to try to see if I could irritate him. And I did. 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.

"And it bothered him, started thinking about me, started thinking about Max (Hazzard, one UC Irvine’s starting guards).

"But he came back and finished the game really strong. And he'd had a thing or two to say to me during the game, and I wanted to let him know that what I'd done was out of respect."

King had 16 points, with four 3–pointers and four rebounds for Oregon against UC Irvine as the Ducks advanced to take on the South's No. 1 seed Virginia on Thursday in the regional semifinals.

The Ducks are the tournament's last double-digit seed still playing.