IUWBB - 2021 NCAA Tournament

[LIHoosier]

Indiana in an NCAA basketball tournament? Yes, it can actually happen. The selection show starts on ESPN in minutes.

Related to the tournament, Geno got the COVID and won't be eligible to join UConn until the Sweet 16 at the earliest.

[LIHoosier]

4 seed in the Mercado region vs 13 VCU

Monday 2pm, ESPNU...not quite primetime

Good news, I only had to watch for 5 minutes.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

VCU 16-10 overall and 10-5 in conference.  Not a good road team going 6-7.  

https://vcuathletics.com/sports/womens-basketball/schedule/2020-21

[Aaron]

Yup. That MSU lost cost us a seed line. VCU should be a win but after that Gonzaga is tough and NC State is even tougher. Would be thrilled with Sweet 16 though, but reality is we gave ourselves a much tougher path by losing to MSU. You could argue we still deserved a 3 seed but we made our bed by not showing against MSU. This is a lesson you need to play your best every game.

Excited to get going and have IU basketball in March Madness.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Hoosier's region bracket.

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Pete DiPrimio -

https://iuhoosiers.com/news/2021/3/18/womens-basketball-iu-brings-win-it-all-mentality-to-ncaa-tourney-quest.aspx

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Women getting seriously shortchanged in fitness facilities.

This video shows the context that the single dumbbell rack in the viral photo is located in a huge, mostly empty room. The NCAA told me they initially didn’t make a weight facility for the women because... they didn’t think the convention center had enough space.

 

[LockdownD]

3 hours ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Women getting seriously shortchanged in fitness facilities.

This video shows the context that the single dumbbell rack in the viral photo is located in a huge, mostly empty room. The NCAA told me they initially didn’t make a weight facility for the women because... they didn’t think the convention center had enough space.

 

And why am I not surprised!  

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

NCAA catching a lot of flak and now trying to CYA

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

A longer video of the women's fitness room.  Towards the end it looks like they're expected to play games of musical chairs.

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

NCAA with major egg on its face over the fitness facilities and now trying to repair the PR damage.

 

NCAA basketball administrators apologized to the women’s basketball players and coaches after inequities between the men’s and women’s tournament went viral on social media and vowed to do better.

NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt vowed to do better during a zoom call Friday morning, a day after photos showed the difference between the weight rooms at the two tournaments.

“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.

During the call, other differences were raised: There are 68 teams in the men’s filed, 64 in the women; and the NCAA pays for the men’s National Invitational Tournament, but not the women’s NIT.

“The field size and NIT, those would be decisions made in conjunction with membership,” Gavitt said. “Those are not decision we could make independently. They are good questions and it’s timely to raise those issues again.”

In a step to solve the weight room issue, the NCAA modified space in the convention center to turn it into a useable workout facility. That work should be completed Saturday. The NCAA had offered ro put a weight-lifting area in the open space next to the practice courts, but coaches didn’t want that because then other teams would be in the vicinity when they were practicing.

“We fell short this year in what we have been doing to prepare in the last 60 days for 64 teams to be in San Antonio. We acknowledge that,” said NCAA Senior Vice President of women’s basketball Lynn Holzman, who is a former college basketball player. “Last night we did have a call with our coaches and team administrators in a way to solicit feedback and their experience thus far.

“Yesterday was the first day our teams had the opportunity to have practice,” she said. “Part of that call was to get feedback on potential solutions to address some of those concerns, including the weight room issue.”

While the difference between the men’s and women’s weight facility was clearly jarring, in the manual that the NCAA had sent to teams before the tournament they specifically had said that no weights would be available until after the second round of the tournament.

This is the first time in the women’s tournament that every game is being played on neutral sites. In the past, campuses would host the opening rounds so teams would be able to schedule weight room times in those on-campus.

Gavitt said that the NCAA will use this opportunity for better collaboration of men’s and women’s basketball.

“What we pull together in months and years, we tried to do in weeks and days,” he said. “That’s meant some shortcomings. I apologize and feel terrible about anything that falls short of our lofty expectations. Some of those shortcomings we’ve seen in Indianapolis as well.”

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

What a difference a day makes along with some bad PR.

 

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Nell Fortner, head women's coach at Ga Tech telling it like it is.

 

[JSHoosier]

27 minutes ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Nell Fortner, head women's coach at Ga Tech telling it like it is.

 

Orangetheory Fitness offered studio sessions and equipment for all the teams.  The NCAA should've provided properly equipment to begin with.