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DALLAS — On a tragic night time for Aliyah Boston, there’s excellent news: She will repair this catastrophe of an ending by rewriting it and coming again for an additional 12 months.
Due to COVID, Boston is without doubt one of the prime gamers within the nation with an additional 12 months of eligibility. That is a present. It did not have to be the tip for Boston: eight factors on a modest 9 pictures in simply 25 minutes as she was beset by foul bother from the soar, ending her undefeated season in smoke in a 77-73 loss to Iowa within the nationwide semifinals.
Earlier than Friday night time, Boston & Co. had received 42 straight video games. His streak could have been damaged within the 2023 match, however he could make one other begin and win the 2024 match. Not everybody whose coronary heart is damaged at March Insanity will get to say the identical.
To be clear, Boston is professional prepared proper now. She is the projected No. 1 choose within the upcoming WNBA Draft and can contribute instantly to the Indiana Fever. (And naturally the Fever hopes she’ll contribute — nobody in that group or fan base is anticipating Boston to get a storybook ending in South Carolina. They need her now.) She’s probably the most profitable participant in America. Full participant, a proficient athlete who will impress on each ends of the ground.
“I’m going to tell him to leave,” South Carolina coach Don Staley mentioned afterwards. “There are defenses she played against (in college) that won’t allow her to play her game … So I would tell her to go. She’s very good. She’s ready. She’s ready to see single coverage. He is ready to take the next step for the league.”
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Not to name Staley a liar, however I can not think about she’d actually flip down the possibility to coach Boston once more, on condition that she described him as somebody who helped South Carolina’s program ” advanced”.
“She was everything to our program,” Staley mentioned. “She’s been a cornerstone of our program for the last four years … She raised the standard of how to approach the basketball. She never had a bad day. Practice never sucks. She’s very, very consistent. Knowing that I Had a great sleep that she was with our program, and I will sleep well knowing that she is okay and that she will definitely make her mark on the next level.
Staley’s right — Boston is entitled to play against just one defender. Right now the consensus 2022 National Player of the Year is averaging a double-double with the opposing team hanging over him. The idea of going up against just one person is probably refreshing for Boston.
But why away from this platform? Why end your college career with a loss when you can rise to the top, a feat that very few people get the opportunity to do?
No matter what happens on Sunday, even if Iowa wins, South Carolina will be an immediate favorite next season when it returns to Boston. Iowa will still have Kaitlin Clark, the 2023 consensus player of the year, but it will lose its X-factor, super-senior Monica Cizzinano, in Friday’s game.
Meanwhile, South Carolina would return the player who many believed should have gone with back-to-back Player of the Year awards. Not a slight on Clark – it’s just that the Gamecocks were the best team all season, Boston is the best player on the best team and he’s a much better defender.
The Gamecocks will be favored, and heavily — and now they, and Boston, may be better able to handle the pressure that comes with being the favorite.
Although it is much more than an opportunity to rise to the top. Boston is royalty in women’s college basketball, treated like a queen in Columbia, South Carolina. She’s got zero advertising deals, a passionate fan base and a home in the new center of women’s basketball.
The WNBA, meanwhile, doesn’t even do charter flights. Does she really want to walk away from college sports?
In the postgame, Boston stated that it had not yet made a decision (per WNBA rules, it has 48 hours to declare its intentions for the next season).
“This determination is an enormous determination,” said Boston, who showed incredible grace when discussing one of the biggest upsets in women’s NCAA tournament history. She joked about how she didn’t want to see any photos of her crying posted online, hinting at heartbreak in 2021 when she missed a tip-in that would have won a national semifinal game against Stanford, And immediately burst into tears. , That sequence ran on loop for months.
She was reflective, talking about the “particular group” she admits that winning 36 games falls short of sporting achievement. She also said that even though South Carolina had completed the perfect season, there was no point in leaving.
Boston said, “I actually had to write down the professionals and cons of all the pieces.”
At the start of the tournament, Boston teased a special announcement, stating that when she finished playing she would reveal why she went with Garnett Braids for the post-season. There were whispers that she was going to announce her intention to return for a fifth year.
Now, he has to. He is one of the best players in the history of the college game, a dominant presence in the paint who can impress every possession.
She will’t exit like this – and by chance, she does not have to.
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