USC basketball: Nikola Vucevic apologizes for his 'we played like women' comment after Arizona game | The Fabulous Forum | Los Angeles Times

USC junior forwardNikola Vucevicapologized Sunday for the comment he made following theTrojans' 82-73 loss to Arizona on Saturdaythat the men's basketball team"played like women."

"I didn't mean to offend people," he said by phone."If I did, I apologize for it."

Vucevic is a native of Montenegro and English is not his first language, which is Serbian.

He largely learned English when he came to Simi Valley Stoneridge Prep in Octpber 2007, but he often admits that he struggles with common English jargon and translating common Serbian phrases into English.

"It happens to me a lot when I try to say something and a lot of people don't understand," he said. 

Vucevic said that was the case with the following remark, which he said in answering a question asked by a Times' reporter about facing Arizona's talented and deep lineup. 

"I felt like we played like women," Vucevic said after the loss in Tucson, Ariz."We didn't play hard at all. Every single one of us just played like women."

There were four people present to hear it, two male reporters working for California newspapers, a female reporter for an Arizona newspaper and a female sports information official for the University of Arizona. 

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