NCAA responds to backlash over women’s basketball weight room criticism
By Keith Farner
Published:
The NCAA is trying to salvage its self-inflicted public relations disaster by announcing a change — and improvement — to the weight room setup at the women’s basketball NCAA Tournament in San Antonio, Texas.
Since the issue went viral on social media, NCAA basketball administrators apologized to the women’s basketball players and coaches after inequities surfaced between the men’s and women’s tournament.
NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt vowed to do better in a Zoom call with the media on Friday.
“I apologize to the women’s student-athletes, coaches and committee for dropping the ball on the weight room issue in San Antonio, we’ll get it fixed as soon as possible,” Gavitt said, per the Associated Press.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley got involved in the issue by way of a statement about the issue.
She said it’s unacceptable for anything to fall short for just the women, and also criticized NCAA President Mark Emmert in a statement posted Friday night on Twitter.
“What we now know is the NCAA’s season-long messaging about ‘togetherness’ and ‘equality’ was about convenience and a soundbite for the moment created after the murder of George Floyd,” Staley wrote. “We cannot as leaders of young women allow Mark Emmert and his team to use us and our student-athletes at their convenience. All teams here deal with the same issues as the men’s teams this season, yet their ‘reward’ is different.”
The weight room has arrived!
Let’s gooooo#ncaaW pic.twitter.com/s9w6sdZ5P8
— NCAA Women’s Basketball (@ncaawbb) March 20, 2021
.@sportsiren walks us through the upgraded weight room and practice setup San Antonio. #ncaaW pic.twitter.com/UOmsyHVpGM
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) March 20, 2021
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
