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LisaG
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- Aug 26, 2011
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Power Plays newsletter - How the 2022 Women’s Final Four became the most-covered in tournament history
"This year, there were more reporters and photographers at the Final Four to cover the madness than ever before. The NCAA said it issued nearly 600 media credentials in Minneapolis, the most in NCAA women’s tournament history. The total number of credentials issued — a number that includes credentials for broadcast partners and other personnel — is close to 1,000. The previous record for total credentials issued came in 2018 at the Final Four in Columbus, when 773 were distributed. At the 2019 Final Four in Tampa Bay— the most recent comparison point, given the tournament was canceled because of the pandemic in 2020 and media was extremely limited due to covid restrictions in 2021 — the number was 716."
The Athletic - South Carolina beating UConn for national title could mark a changing era in women’s college basketball
"Like Auriemma at UConn, Staley took over at South Carolina at a time when the program didn’t even give off hints of becoming a national title contender. Like Auriemma at UConn, Staley built the program from the floor up, and in 2017, the Gamecocks brought home their first national title — a statement that a decade earlier would’ve caused spit takes from the folks in Columbia, S.C."
"There’s a piece of this that ties back to both Auriemma and Staley’s childhoods in Philadelphia, nearly 15 years apart. Something about the grit and edge that comes with that. Something about how building these two programs in — of all places — Storrs and Columbia just makes a bit more sense when it was done by two people who call Philly home.
“Philly people are kind of …” Auriemma said before pausing for a moment on Saturday. “Maybe it’s because we were close to New York, and we have this inferiority complex that we have to prove to everybody that we’re smarter and tougher and better than everybody else. I think all of us from that area carry that around.”
Everyone wants a glimpse of Dawn Staley, the South Carolina coach at the top of the game
"During their first season together at South Carolina in 2008-09, Staley and Boyer inherited a team that, in their words, “didn’t love basketball.” For Staley, this was unfathomable. Staley was still a young coach; even though she was eight years into the profession, she was only in her third season doing it full-time, having spent her first six years at Temple both coaching and playing in the WNBA."
"A few weeks into the preseason, Boyer pulled Staley aside after practice and said she was going to say something that Staley didn’t want to hear, but she needed to listen. You lost this team. You’ve lost them. They’re not hearing you anymore, they’re just hearing the noise. Staley fired back at her: She wasn’t changing who she was; she refused to change her principles. They didn’t even love the game. Why should she change?"
"This year, there were more reporters and photographers at the Final Four to cover the madness than ever before. The NCAA said it issued nearly 600 media credentials in Minneapolis, the most in NCAA women’s tournament history. The total number of credentials issued — a number that includes credentials for broadcast partners and other personnel — is close to 1,000. The previous record for total credentials issued came in 2018 at the Final Four in Columbus, when 773 were distributed. At the 2019 Final Four in Tampa Bay— the most recent comparison point, given the tournament was canceled because of the pandemic in 2020 and media was extremely limited due to covid restrictions in 2021 — the number was 716."
The Athletic - South Carolina beating UConn for national title could mark a changing era in women’s college basketball
"Like Auriemma at UConn, Staley took over at South Carolina at a time when the program didn’t even give off hints of becoming a national title contender. Like Auriemma at UConn, Staley built the program from the floor up, and in 2017, the Gamecocks brought home their first national title — a statement that a decade earlier would’ve caused spit takes from the folks in Columbia, S.C."
"There’s a piece of this that ties back to both Auriemma and Staley’s childhoods in Philadelphia, nearly 15 years apart. Something about the grit and edge that comes with that. Something about how building these two programs in — of all places — Storrs and Columbia just makes a bit more sense when it was done by two people who call Philly home.
“Philly people are kind of …” Auriemma said before pausing for a moment on Saturday. “Maybe it’s because we were close to New York, and we have this inferiority complex that we have to prove to everybody that we’re smarter and tougher and better than everybody else. I think all of us from that area carry that around.”
Everyone wants a glimpse of Dawn Staley, the South Carolina coach at the top of the game
"During their first season together at South Carolina in 2008-09, Staley and Boyer inherited a team that, in their words, “didn’t love basketball.” For Staley, this was unfathomable. Staley was still a young coach; even though she was eight years into the profession, she was only in her third season doing it full-time, having spent her first six years at Temple both coaching and playing in the WNBA."
"A few weeks into the preseason, Boyer pulled Staley aside after practice and said she was going to say something that Staley didn’t want to hear, but she needed to listen. You lost this team. You’ve lost them. They’re not hearing you anymore, they’re just hearing the noise. Staley fired back at her: She wasn’t changing who she was; she refused to change her principles. They didn’t even love the game. Why should she change?"