SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Aliyah Boston’s tearful reaction to losing a setback that would put South Carolina in the national championship game has caused people to enter social media supporting the second year.
Lisa Leslie could identify with the pain of the moment.
“Keep your head up (hashtag) aa_boston I lost the winner of a game in my second year and thought it was the end … only to find out … it was just the beginning! Animal mode! See you back on top, champion, ”wrote the Hall of Fame on Friday night on Twitter.
Leslie, three times an MVP and eight times an All-Star, congratulated Stanford and South Carolina for an “incredible game”. With Boston’s hitting attempt hitting the back edge, Stanford held on for a 66-65 victory in the national semifinal.
Former American All-American A’ja Wilson from South Carolina was at the Alamodome. She is in San Antonio for a training camp for the US women’s national basketball team. Wilson offered an encouraging reminder after the painful loss.
“The future is so bright for babies”, Wilson wrote.
HEY REF
The NCAA women’s basketball committee revealed the 11 officials who will work on the Final Four and the tournament’s championship game.
The names were released Thursday, the first time the group was announced on the eve of the national semifinals.
“Officers have long been an integral part of the game,” said Penny Davis, coordinator of NCAA officials. “They deserve the same praise for their hard work and to be honored for this achievement. This is in line with our strategic plan. Increased arbitration is part of that. This helps to humanize us and to recognize and honor the work they did to reach this elite stage. “
Included in the group is Dee Kantner, who will work on his 24th Final Four and Maj Forsberg, who will be an official at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
The official assignments for each semifinal game on Friday night, as well as Sunday night’s national championship game, will be announced one hour before each game. Brenda Pantoja, Eric Brewton and Gina Cross worked on the South Carolina-Stanford semifinal, and Kantner, Charles Gonzalez and Pualani Spurlock controlled the UConn-Arizona game.
Davis said that the chosen officials were evaluated for each game in the tournament for mechanics, signals, game call, accuracy, application of rules and points of emphasis. Davis said that each game has almost 200 decision points.
The basketball selection committee has the final say on who makes the final games official based on the recommendations of Davis and his team.
TRAVEL!
Chuck and Karen Autrey drove 12 hours from Tucson, Arizona, to San Antonio to watch their Wildcats play in the Final Four for the first time.
Both are fully vaccinated and were unable to watch the Arizona game in person this season, so when tickets were made available, they didn’t hesitate.
“Let’s go on a trip,” said Chuck Autrey. “It’s time to leave.”
They remembered Arizona coach Adia Barnes when she played at school and wanted tickets as soon as she was hired as head coach. They had been ticket holders for the longtime season for the men’s show and traveled to every Final Four that the men had played in.
“If she trains as well as a player, she will be a winner,” said Chuck Autrey.
FEMALE POWER
ESPN has a female producer for the Final Four for the first time in the history of its tournament production, with Kerry Callahan taking over this year. Callahan has been on the network for 20 years, starting as a production assistant and working his way up here.
“This event has always been important to me and it is something I have been participating in for a long time,” she said. “It is my goal to arrive and produce this championship with this event.”
Callahan has been in San Antonio since the beginning of the tournament, even when the announcers worked remotely.
“That was a challenge,” she said. “Our production was here, but the announcers were remote. Things like the first two days being triple headers for the production teams, and we were switching teams of advertisers between games. This is not the norm. “
Callahan started on ESPN in 2000 and started producing the first rounds and regionals in the last decade.
MORE AWARDS FOR BUECKERS, CLARK
Good friends and competitors Paige Bueckers of UConn and Caitlin Clark of Iowa are sharing the honor as Tamika Catchings’ Best Player of the Year.
The United States Basketball Writers Association announced the awards on Friday. Stanford trainer Tara VanDerveer won her second USBWA trainer of the year award for the second time in her career and 32 years after the first.
B ueckers won the Associated Press Player of the Year Award Wednesday and took the Huskies to their 13th consecutive Final Four. Clark led the country with an average score of 26.7 points per game and took Iowa to Sweet 16, where Hawkeyes lost to Buecker Huskies.
USBWA will announce its Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year award on Sunday, ahead of the national championship.
PURPLE AND GOLD TRIBUTE
UConn’s freshman # 3, Aaliyah Edwards, is easy to spot on the court with her long purple and gold braids flying as she fights for every rebound or battle for position under the basket.
But your hair is not just a style statement.
It is a tribute to her late brother Jermaine, who helped teach her the game and shared a love for the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant. Jermaine, who also played college basketball, at St. Lawrence College in his hometown of Kingston, Ontario, died suddenly in 2017, at the age of 27.
“I always know that he’s above taking care of me,” said Edwards. “Mentally, I kind of think to myself, ‘What would he say in this scenario or what would he think about what I’m doing for this game,’ she said.
HISTORY OF WOMEN’S HULLS
Stanford will play for yet another piece of history on Sunday on a very special birthday.
Sunday is the 125th anniversary of the first university women’s basketball game between Stanford and California in 1896 in San Francisco. Stanford won that game before the sport was discontinued in 1899, supposedly for the health of the students.
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said the date was informed and she saw pictures of the uniforms and the ball.
“So we have come a long way,” said VanDerveer. “But we also know that we have a long way to go.”
___
AP Basketball writer Doug Feinberg and AP Sports writers Pat Eaton-Robb and Teresa M. Walker contributed to this report.
___
More female college basketball AP: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25