The aplomb with which the Rutgers basketball team responded to Imus' slurring them as "nappy-headed hos" surely played a part in the decision of CBS to cancel his popular morning radio program late Thursday.

UCSB coach Mark French plans to use the episode as a "teaching moment" for his women's basketball team.

"It would have been easy for them (Rutgers) to get down in the mud," French said. "Instead they handled it with class, intelligence and dignity. They showed the difference between themselves and Imus. They weren't vindictive. They didn't agitate for him to get fired. The way they tempered it was good for Rutgers and for everybody who wants to learn how to handle such a situation."

Whitney Warren, one of seven African-Americans on UCSB's team, decided on her own not to be consumed by bitterness.

"You're always going to be faced with people who make comments like that," Warren said. "It's how you choose to respond. Two wrongs don't make a right. I might feel good hitting you back, but what does it mean in the long run?"

By taking the high road, the Rutgers women exposed Imus' ignorance, made it clear his remarks were not in the least funny -- he tried to weasel his way out of it by playing the joke card -- and left him covered in his own mud.

"What did he know about those girls -- their academics, what they do off the court, how hard they worked to get to the championship game?" Warren said.

Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer and her players clearly let the public know Imus was wrong.

Stringer has long been one of the most passionate leaders in women's sports. When she was coaching at Iowa, she brought the Hawkeyes to UCSB for a game in December 1994.

 
"We felt honored to have her here," French said.

Camille Burkes, one of French's assistant coaches, grew up in Iowa.

"I always looked up to Coach Stringer," Burkes said. "She took Rutgers where every team in the nation is striving to reach, the NCAA championship game."

When Burkes heard an audio replay of Imus' remarks, she said, "I was hurt, stunned ... like, wow. I understand free speech, but those comments were so personally degrading."

Burkes was supervising a study hall Wednesday night for the Gaucho women's team. That's where Warren said her peace.

Kat Suderman, another sophomore, also weighed in on the issue.

"Imus gave a negative example of people's perceptions of female athletes," Suderman said. "But because of all the people who came out in support of Rutgers, it's had a positive effect too."

Suderman, who is white, said Imus should have been fired because "he's made racial slurs a lot of times. Where's it going to end? There's free speech, but there's a line you have to draw."

"Nobody's throwing him in jail," French pointed out. "But he had a responsibility while holding the power of the microphone. I wasn't concerned whether he should lose his job, but whether somebody could say the things he did and the public is OK about it.

"That would be sad. I'm happy our society was upset enough that his sponsors and bosses felt something had to be done."

GAUCHO NOTES: Congratulations to UCSB junior Jenna Green. The All-Big West center received another honor this week -- selection to the Division I-AAA Academic All-America women's basketball team.

Green is one of 10 players so honored because she maintained a minimum 3.20 grade-point average (hers is 3.31 while majoring in black studies and sociology) while displaying "legitimate athletics credentials."

Division I-AAA comprises schools that play Division I basketball but do not have football programs. ... The Gaucho men's volleyball team came through with a sweep at USC on Wednesday night (game scores were 30-24, 30-15 and 30-25) to clinch fourth place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

The Gauchos will host UCLA, the defending national champion, in the MPSF quarterfinals on April 21.