NCAA officials admitted they dropped the ball when it came to the Women’s Basketball Tournament problems and offered an apology on Friday, but South Carolina coach Dawn Staley did not seem satisfied.
The NCAA was criticized because of discrepancies in the weight room, food selection and gift bags when it came to male and female tournaments. The Men’s Tournament is being held at locations around Indianapolis and the Women’s Tournament is being held around locations in San Antonio.
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Oregon striker Sedona Prince highlighted the problems in a TikTok video on Thursday night after the NCAA issued a statement saying it would rectify the problem but acknowledged the spatial issues in the different bubbles in the tournament. Staley was one of the loudest voices to voice her disapproval of the way the players in the women’s tournament were supposedly being treated.
“What we now know is that the NCAA messages throughout the season about ‘union’ and ‘equality’ were about convenience and a catchphrase for the moment created after the assassination of George Floyd,” Staley wrote in a long statement. “We cannot, as young women leaders allow [NCAA President] Mark Emmert and his team to use us and our student athletes at their convenience. All the teams here deal with the same problems as the men’s teams this season, but their ‘reward’ is different. “
NCAA senior vice president of basketball, Gavitt, promised to do better.
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“I apologize to the female student-athletes, coaches and committee for dropping the ball in the weight room issue in San Antonio, we will fix this as soon as possible,” he said.
To resolve complaints from the weight room, the organization modified the space of the convention center into a larger gym, due to be completed on Saturday.
“We have not achieved this year what we have done to prepare for the past 60 days for 64 teams in San Antonio. We recognize that,” said NCAA senior vice president for women’s basketball, Lynn Holzman, on Friday. “Last night, we received a call from our coaches and team administrators to request feedback and their experience so far.”
She added: “Yesterday was the first day that our teams had the opportunity to practice. Part of that call was to get feedback on possible solutions to address some of these concerns, including the weight room problem.”
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The NCAA promised better collaboration between the two tournaments. Gavitt said he felt “terrible” about the deficiencies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.