Gamecocks’ Boston: Turned down late invite by ESPYS

COLUMBIA, S.C. » Consensus college women’s basketball player of the year Aliyah Boston turned down a late invitation to the ESPYS awards show, saying the offer was even more hurtful than not being asked to attend.

Boston helped the South Carolina Gamecocks win the NCAA title by defeating Connecticut in April. She swept the national awards as the game’s top player, including the Wooden and AP awards.

Boston, voted the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, had hoped to attend and was disappointed when not asked.

“It hurt more to see ESPN change course and invite me only after social media caught wind of it,” Boston posted on Twitter on Wednesday. “Respectfully, I declined.”

Boston’s coach, Dawn Staley, highlighted the snub this week, musing publicly on social media how the people who planned the ESPYS decided “it was a great idea not to invite” the woman who won several national awards as one of the best players last season.

“Not one person was able to see the uproar this would cause? There’s definitely something wrong with the make up of the room,” Staley said on Twitter.

In a statement, ESPN said COVID-19 concerns and a smaller venue forced organizers to prioritize invitees to the show in Los Angeles.

Report: NCAA makes progress on gender inequality

The NCAA has adequately addressed nine of 23 recommendations for creating comparable NCAA Tournament experiences for men’s and women’s players, according to a progress report released Wednesday.

College sports’ largest governing body hired a third party to evaluate its response to a scathing report issued a year ago that criticized gender inequality in the tournaments.

Among the most visible changes noted in the progress report were “March Madness” branding and increased cross-promotion for both tournaments in 2022, as well as the addition of four teams to the women’s tournament to create a “First Four” event to bring it in line with the men’s tournament structure.