Official: NCAA ‘fell short’ on amenities.
Official says NCAA ‘fell short’ providing amenities
NCAA senior vice president of women’s basketball Lynn Holzman fought back tears Friday morning as she addressed the inequity between the amenities offered at the women’s basketball tournament compared to the men’s.
Since the NCAA announced in February the entire women’s event would be held in San Antonio, Holzman has felt like she’s sprinting a marathon, she said. About 2,000 people from team travel parties have filled seven downtown hotels this week, preparing to stage competition at six area venues through a two-week period, all while navigating safety protocols related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Holzman acknowledged Friday that the NCAA “fell short” in areas, with blemishes drawing widespread attention on social media as players and coaches voiced concerns about inadequate weight training equipment, subpar food options and courtesy bags that did not compare to those offered at the men’s tournament in Indianapolis.
Holzman, a women’s basketball player at Kansas State in the 1990s, said the NCAA is “actively working” to make improvements and will have some solutions in place by Saturday morning.
“It is our responsibility to give them a great championship expe
rience and one they can be proud of,” Holzman said. “It’s disappointing. I don’t even have the words to describe how painful it is, personally.”
Concern over the discrepancies between the men’s and women’s tournaments began to swirl online Thursday, when Stanford sports performance coach Ali Kerscher juxtaposed an image of the small weight tower given to women’s teams with the full weight room provided at the men’s tournament in Indianapolis.
Holzman issued a statement Thursday saying the lack of weight training equipment was in part due to “limited space,” prompting players and coaches to post photos and videos of seemingly unused space surrounding practice courts at the Convention Center.
A video posted to Twitter on Thursday night by Oregon player Sedona Prince has been viewed more than 9 million times.
“If you aren’t upset about this problem,” Prince said in the video, “then you’re a part of it.”
Within a few hours of the issues beginning to gain traction Thursday, the
NCAA organized a virtual meeting of coaches and administrators from all 64 teams, Holzman said.
After the tournament bracket was unveiled Monday night, 31 teams that were automatic qualifiers traveled to San Antonio on Tuesday, with the 33 atlarge teams arriving Wednesday. Travel parties were required to quarantine in their hotel rooms for two days, leaving a couple days for practice before tournament play beginning Sunday.
“We’re not being ungrateful complaining about the situation we’re in,” Connecticut player Paige Bueckers told the Associated Press. “I know it took a lot of effort for them to put this all together. But just seeing the inequalities of what the men get and what we get. … They’re getting more stuff we don’t get, and a more enjoyable experience than us. So equality is really all we want.”
Addressing complaints about food quality, Holzman said the NCAA has “been working to adjust and relax” requirements that hotels provide a certain amount of meals, instead allowing teams increased options to order from restaurants. The local organizing committee in San Antonio assigned each team a virtual host in the area to help facilitate food deliveries.
Holzman said the NCAA will meet with coaches and administrators again following the conclusion of second-round games Wednesday, with the possibility to reconvene earlier, if needed.
NCAA women’s basketball committee chair Nina King said the NCAA staff is “working diligently to get this right.”
“We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” King said, “but I do have confidence that as a women’s basketball community we can work together, and we will address the shortfalls here in San Antonio and move forward.”
NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said he apologized to players and coaches for “dropping the ball on the weight room issue in San Antonio.”
Gavitt said the effort to pull together a tournament in one location on a condensed schedule has “meant some shortcomings.” He also pointed to the need to work remotely as a possible cause of mistakes in collaboration.
“Are they excuses? Quite possibly,” Gavitt said. “But they’re things I take to heart as things we need to improve upon.”