As various instances of inequitable
treatment from the men’s and wom-
en’s NCAA basketball tournaments
circulate the internet, the optics are
damning.
To
start,
there
have
been
images
showing
the
difference
between men’s
and
women’s
weight rooms.
There
have
been
similar
images regarding “swag bags” at the
men’s and women’s tournaments.
Moreover, there have been less tangi-
ble disparities in that the men’s tour-
nament is the only to use the branding
of “March Madness” and “the Big
Dance.”
On appearance alone, these condi-
tions require explanation. And, quite
frankly, the NCAA has failed to pro-
vide justifiable explanations for their
actions at every turn.
“In part, (the lack of a women’s
weight room) is due to the limit-
ed space,” NCAA Vice President of
Women’s Basketball Lynn Holzman-
said in a statement released by the
NCAA on Mar. 18. “And the original
plan was to expand the workout area
once additional space was available
later in the tournament.”
Without context, this explanation
already seems weak considering the
months of planning that went into
this year’s tournament on account of
COVID-19, but we do have context
here. And the context makes matters
worse.
As a video captured by Oregon for-
ward Sedona Prince shows, the space
was there the whole time. Just behind
the abysmal setup the NCAA provid-
ed, a wide-open floor space capable
of holding a much more adequate
weight room awaits.
It doesn’t make sense.
The NCAA decided to hold its
entire women’s tournament in a San
Antonio bubble at the beginning of
February. And while there is obvious-
ly a lot that goes into planning such an
event, it seems highly improbable that
there could be a misstep in something
as simple as space availability.
There is just no way that, with all
the concerns over space relevant to
conducting a large, bubble-style tour-
nament during the COVID-19 pan-
demic, the NCAA hadn’t thoroughly
considered potential spatial issues
before booking the San Antonio ven-
ues.
Even more, a proper weight room
is fundamental to the preparation and
success of collegiate athletes. And as
such, providing appropriate facilities
for women’s tournament participants
should not have been an afterthought.
With all of this being said, blaming
the lack of proper facilities on a lack of
space isn’t a settling explanation, it’s
an excuse, and a false one at that.
The merchandise provided to each
group shows an equivalent disparity.
While the men received a vast “swag
bag” of goods ranging from towels to
T-shirts to banners all emblazoned
with “March Madness” or “The
Big Dance” branding, the women
received a scant package of generic
“NCAA” and “women’s basketball”
branded merchandise.
The NCAA has provided a state-
ment about these packages, but
they would have to do a lot better
than “there wasn’t enough space” to
explain away this unequal treatment.
And to put it simply, they didn’t.
Holzman stresses in that public
statement that the dollar values of the
two bags were equal, but one certain-
ly does not get that impression from
looking at the images.
It would be understandable that
the men’s and women’s merchandise
teams would have created different
bags if they were given an equivalent
value to use and then sent their sep-
arate ways to fill that total, but that’s
not what happened.
In fact, Holzman explains that the
men’s and women’s staffs “proactive-
ly” worked together on making the
bags. So, what explains away the dif-
ference in appearance?
The answer cannot be equivalent
value because optics matter and,
again, the optics are damning. Maybe
an excuse is that the NCAA doesn’t
use its trademarked phrase “March
Madness” for the women’s tourna-
ment, so it doesn’t make sense to give
them branded material.
But again, why not brand the wom-
en’s tournament?
There is nothing different about
what teams have to do to get into the
men’s and women’s tournaments.
There is nothing any less difficult
about making a deep run in the tour-
nament. And there is nothing that
makes earning such an appearance
or run any less meaningful for the
women than to the men.
Put simply, this matter of branding,
which is likely intended to preserve
the integrity of the men’s tourna-
ment’s magic, binds the women’s
tournament to a lack of comparable
spectacle.
You don’t even have to give the
“March Madness” or “the Big Dance”
branding to the women’s tournament,
NCAA. You only need to give the
women’s tournament a brand of com-
parable appeal and consistency.
The fact that the women’s tour-
nament is completely unbranded
is insulting, and it belies a lack of
respect for the efforts of the stu-
dent-athletes, coaches and staff
involved. In 2021, there is no excuse
for blatant preferential treatment of
male athletes, and the NCAA is more
than wise enough to know it needs
to take specific measures to ensure
equality in how it provides for its
male and female athletes, no matter
the sport.
I don’t care about revenue differ-
ences; the NCAA makes $1 billion in
revenue each year and the disrespect
of women’s sports is a large part of
why women’s basketball does not
bring in more of that revenue. The
NCAA must acknowledge the power
it has over people’s opinions about
men’s and women’s sports and the
power it holds over young female ath-
letes’ self-esteem.
As Michigan softball coach Carol
Hutchins said via Twitter Mar. 19, “It
is time to consider ALL the athletes,
ALL the time!”
Hutchins is absolutely right, and
it is time that the NCAA catches up
with the moment.
And to do so, the NCAA must start
with providing better explanations
for its current mistreatment.
Jacob Cohen can be reached by
email at jaccohen@umich.edu
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 — 15
The NCAA’s excuses don’t add up
JACOB
COHEN
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
The NCAA has come under fire after social media posts exposed disparities between the two tournaments.
Wolverines manage to withstand runs in back-and-forth affair
INDIANAPOLIS — There’s an old
saying in Indiana — and everywhere
the sport is played — that basketball is
a game of runs.
The track meet that was the
Michigan men’s basketball team’s
second-round, 86-78 win against LSU
on Monday night certainly lived up to
that adage.
After a late first-half surge got them
back in the game, the Wolverines held
a slim one-point lead over the Tigers
at halftime. Virtually deadlocked
coming out of the break, both teams
had everything to play for.
LSU went on a quick 8-2 run to
regain the lead and momentum.
Every time the Tigers threatened
to pull away, though, Michigan had
an answer. Graduate guard Mike
Smith and senior guard Eli Brooks hit
consecutive 3-pointers to stop LSU’s
scoring spurt in its tracks.
“Our guys kept grinding it,
grinding it,” Michigan coach Juwan
Howard said. “Each possession, we
got stops when we needed it. We also
continued to attack the basket and not
settle. But we also made some good
shots that were open.”
Throughout the half, the teams
went back and forth, trading six
and seven-point runs. For a while it
seemed like whichever team’s run
coincided with the final buzzer would
advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
The Wolverines, grounded by
their veterans, not only withstood the
barrage, but wouldn’t let that scenario
come to be.
After knocking down two free
throws, senior guard Chaundee
Brown Jr. hit one of his three triples
on the night to put Michigan up
by eight at the 5:57 minute mark.
The Tigers tried to recover, but the
Wolverines had had enough of the
game’s seesawing nature.
“(My teammates and coaches) told
me before the game, ‘Come in and
be aggressive, just play basketball,’ ”
Brown said. “I had a talk with myself
before the game, ‘Just be you.’ I feel
like I did that.”
Michigan’s advantage would only
vacillate from six to 10 the rest of the
way.
“We couldn’t string together
enough stops,” LSU coach Will Wade
said. “We could just never string
together enough stops to make a run
and to expand our lead. … After we
got the six-point lead, we gave up a
couple threes, we missed a floater
in the lane. We could never sustain
what we were doing.”
Added Brooks: “To be honest,
it was just about wearing on them,
making everything tough. … It was
mostly just staying the course.”
Howard had told his team that a
win against the Tigers would require
them to “empty the tank.” Facing a
do-or-die situation, the Wolverines
responded in a big way. Having
experienced back-and-forth contests
throughout the Big Ten season,
Michigan had been in a similar
position before. The Wolverines
were never fazed and delivered the
knockout blow when the opportunity
presented itself.
“We (didn’t) wanna go back to the
hotel regretting ‘I shoulda did this,
I coulda did this,’ ” Brown said. “We
have an off day tomorrow, go all out.
I feel like that really sticks to all of us.
Like (Howard) says all the time, we
want to rest on April 6.”
Thanks to the cool heads of
veterans like Brooks and Brown, the
Wolverines won’t be resting for very
long.
CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Editor
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
The Wolverines overcame an early LSU run en route to an 86-78 win.
Brooks keys ‘M’ win over LSU
INDIANAPOLIS — With 30
seconds on the clock, an errant
shot in the lane by Louisiana
State’s Cameron Thomas bounced
off the left side of the rim. As the
Tigers’ Trendon Watford lunged
for the rebound, he found himself
outmuscled by senior guard Eli
Brooks. Standing at just 6-foot-
2, Brooks came away with the
rebound before calmly hitting
two free throws on the other end,
putting the finishing touches on an
88-76 win for the Michigan men’s
basketball team to advance to its
fourth consecutive Sweet Sixteen.
It’s fitting that Brooks was the
man to clinch the Wolverines’ victory
in an electric shootout. In the early
stages of the game, Brooks sparked
a seemingly dormant Michigan
offense with an early barrage of
3-pointers. Brooks, who hit five of his
nine attempts from beyond the arc, is
shooting a blistering 53.3% from deep
through two tournament games.
“My shot is feeling as good as it
has all year,” Brooks said. “Coaches
always say next shot mentality, take
the shots when you’re open. That’s
what I’ve been doing.”
Brooks’s barrage from long
range proved to be instrumental
in the Wolverines keeping pace
with an LSU offense that ranks
as the nation’s fifth-best unit,
according to KenPom. The Tigers’
lead ballooned to as much as nine
in the first half, with Thomas and
backcourt partner Javonte Smart
hitting long contested jumpers
with an efficiency usually only seen
in layup lines. With LSU’s offense
showing no signs of taking its foot
off the gas pedal, Michigan needed
to cultivate a rebuttal.
WIth three 3-pointers and 13
first half points, Brooks answered
the call.
“Eli has been like this since the
last year I started coaching him,”
Michigan coach Juwan Howard
said. “He’s a basketball guy, has a
high IQ. Very underrated in a lot of
ways offensively and defensively.”
Brooks continued to come up with
big buckets in the second half. With
the Wolverines trailing by three,
Brooks nailed a 3-pointer to knot the
score at 51 apiece. Just three minutes
later, he delivered again from the left
corner. With senior forward Isaiah
Livers out indefinitely with a stress
fracture, Michigan was left without
a clear-cut go-to scorer when in
need of a bucket.
If tonight was Brooks’s audition
to fill that role, he aced it.
“The coaches have always been
on me about being aggressive,
taking my shots. (Howard’s) on
everybody because we believe
everybody’s really talented on the
team. It’s just about confidence
and instilling confidence into each
other.”
By the end of the night, Brooks
produced perhaps the best game
of his senior campaign, scoring
21 points on an efficient 7-for-11
shooting. As effective as he was
scoring the basketball, he was
equally as effective setting up his
teammates for buckets of their
own, registering a team-high seven
assists. Seen on the surface to many
as being primarily a defensive piece
of the Wolverines’ equation, Brooks
proved with more eyeballs on him
than ever that he is much more than
that.
You could even say he may
end up being the Wolverines’
most essential ingredient to a
championship-winning formula.
“Sometimes you look at a guy’s
numbers, you say he deserves to be
on the defensive team,” Howard
said. “Well, watch our games, you
understand why we appreciate
Eli and what he brings to the table
night in and night out. He’s our glue
guy.”
TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer
Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Eli Brooks is shooting 53.3% from behind the
arc across the Wolverines’ four games across
two tournaments.
Pitching shines as Michigan falls to MSU
Senior
right-hander
Blake
Beers threw his third consecutive
curveball in the dirt and racked up
his third consecutive swing and
miss to retire the batter. He walked
to the dugout at the end of the fifth
inning, greeted by his enthusiastic
teammates.
It was Beers’s best start of the
season to date; but it wasn’t enough.
The Michigan baseball team held
Michigan State to just four hits in
the entire game, yet lost 3-0. Beers
threw 100 pitches over 5.2 innings,
allowing just one earned run, but
in the end Michigan couldn’t come
through.
“He was much better today.
Just a better job of getting ahead
of
hitters,
minimizing
base
runners,” Michigan coach Erik
Bakich said. “Between Blake and
Joe (Pace) and Willie (Weiss),
their stuff was excellent, they
were all throwing mid 90s. That’s
the hardest Blake’s ever thrown,
touching 97 and he just had good
stuff.”
The stellar defense the team
has played throughout the season
continued, with junior infielder
Riley Bertram making a leaping
catch in the fourth inning to snag a
line drive heading for the gap. Fifth-
year infielder Christian Molfetta
also made several critical plays, and
fifth-year infielder Benjamin Sems
was in typical form, making several
key contributions from shortstop.
“Throwing
to
(fifth-year
catcher Griffin Mazur) gives
everyone on the staff a ton of
confidence,
everyone
on
the
defense is great so everyone has
a ton of confidence throwing,”
graduate right-hander Joe Pace
said. “We know we have an elite
defense in Sems and Bertram
and Molfetta. … We have an elite
defense and that’s really our
strength as a staff because we
trust them so much.”
Beers was replaced by Pace,
who looked sharp as he allowed
just one hit and no runs over 2.1
innings, continuing his strong
start to the season. Junior right-
hander Willie Weiss replaced
Pace for the ninth with Michigan
down two runs and he recorded
three outs on the four batters he
faced, although he would allow
an insurance run by way of a solo
blast.
“You talk about a guy who
was just dominant, really found
his stride,” Sems said of Beers.
“I mean he was throwing 96, 97,
that’s gonna play any day. He’s a
grinder out there and he gave us
everything, every opportunity
that we need to win that game. He
pitched really well.”
In the end, the off day hitting
was not enough to capitalize on
the stellar pitching for Michigan.
“It’s unfortunate we couldn’t
create any offense behind (Beers),”
Bakich said. “But we certainly
pitched well enough to win today.”
STEEL HURLEY
Daily Sports Writer
Gabby Ceritano/Daily
Michigan senior right-gander Blake Beers pitched 5.2 innings on Tuesday,
allowing two earned runs in a loss to Michigan State.