In a media world where it's quick and increasingly convenient to insult someone you don't know, the 10 members of the Rutgers women's basketball team who sat on a platform at their campus were a quietly eloquent reminder of how mindless words affect real people.

The women, called "nappy-headed hos" by radio host Don Imus, include a class valedictorian, a future lawyer and a musical prodigy who plays classical compositions on the piano without sheet music.

In their first comments about Imus' remarks, the team talked Tuesday about how the insult stung. Some of the women wiped away tears as their coach, C. Vivian Stringer, criticized Imus for "racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable, abominable and unconscionable" the day after they reached the NCAA finals.

The young women, half of them freshmen and eight of them black, expressed incredulity at how someone they've never met could say such a thing about them.