On March 17 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) released a new ad on Twitter, in which they claim to show a day in the life of a student athlete. The video received a lot of backlash from current and former collegiate athletes, many professional players that played sports in college also answered to the tweet.

Students and former students claimed that the video was far from reality, some twitter users even labeled it as fake news. They brought up points including how the video doesn’t portrait the actual stress athletes go through on a daily basis, the lack of time to socialize with friends and how exhausted athletes get halfway through the day due to their chaotic schedules.

Tommy Olson, former University of Minnesota football player, said that he understands why so many athletes were bothered by the ad, since it doesn’t represent what student athletes  actually have to go through. But Olson also pointed out that the ad was a way for NCAA to sell the idea of being a collegiate athlete, it was just a way to sell the brand – and when making a commercial for your company, you only show the good parts.

Also brought up by a few twitter users was how the NCAA exploits athletes. This commercial opened a window for people to argue about how the NCAA makes billions of dollars but doesn’t pay student athletes.

Richard Sherman, Stanford Alum and professional football player, commented on the matter, claiming how the video was a excuse for billionaires to not pay athletes.

Another issue that was commented on was the NCAA’s strict rules. Athletes have been complaining about the regulations made by the association, that are so rigorous that technically, the NCAA was not even allowed to use one of their own athletes to make the ad. This is not a new issue for NCAA athletes, but the backlash of the ad provided a platform for players to come together and openly expose their complaints.

Overall, the ad received a lot of critique and made students and former students  bring up many important issues, to the extent that famous athletes came in and also shared their thoughts. The wide reach of the response demonstrated that the existing issues within the NCAA have been the reality of student athletes for a while and protests against these are yet to create lasting change.

Even with all of her accomplishments, Ionescu still believes that she has a lot of work to do in order to improve her game. In an interview with ESPN, she shared her goals.

“I think a part of my game I want to work on is defense, for sure,” Ionescu said. “It’s something we have to do as a team, too, but it definitely starts individually. And then just being able to score the ball better, and create more on my own. And just be able to impact the game any way I can.”

Ionescu showed her competitiveness as a power player even when she was young. She grew up playing against the boys and did extra training with the football team in order to improve her strength and endurance. This work ethic caught the eyes of many scouts and recruits throughout her youth. However, Ionescu was one of the last of her teammates to commit to a university. Ionescu decided to wait and watch the performance of various teams in order to feel out the talent and what school she would have the best fit at. She decided on Oregon. Since that choice, she has dominated and become an essential player on their team from day one. Ionescu scored 36 points in the game against Stanford University last week.

Ionescu doesn’t just represent talent, however, but the importance of pure work ethic and determination. Kelly Graves, Ionescu’s Coach, discussed the impact Sabrina has had on Oregon Women’s Basketball.

“There’s no question. She’s our leader on the floor. She has help, but people look to her to set a tone. She is vocal, and she leads by example. She’s our hardest-working player, and I think she’s a really significant leader,” Graves said.

Her leadership skills demonstrate the importance of determination and she has shown that younger athletes have the ability to significantly impact their sport. She leads by example for her teammates and has shown her competitors that Oregon basketball will do anything to win.

Photo courtesy of the Daily Emerald