It was ‘lights out’ excitement at the recent NCAA Women’s Final Four Championship. The build-up was epic and the boost in game cred carried over from semis to Finals. The numbers speak for themselves, on the court in player stats, in sports entertainment as well as market stats. Why is all this happening?

Well, seems like next gen is ready to ball! Just look at team play and individual records of Aliyah Boston and Diamond Miller. Boston is prob the most heralded South Carolina Gamecocks player in history. While Miller is the second Maryland Terrapins player to achieve high first-round pick in the WNBA draft.

Boston’s stat sheet reads like a long form record book of accomplishments. The highlights include three straight Final Four appearances, Finals Most Outstanding Player, multiple Defensive Player of the Year Awards along with Player of the Year distinction. You could easily run out of breath trying to list them all.

Miller is no slouch either as a product of Somerset NJ (hometown of this blog’s editor) and a scoring machine for the Terps. At the end of her high school days she realized she had what it took to be among the best. So, she just put in the work and feels blessed for the chance to grow as a player and person.

It’s a very proud moment not just for Miller in NJ but also Boston who’s a native of the U.S Virgin Islands. Friends and fam know that they don’t just show up for the fame, but moreso to raise their game. Plus, since the WNBA isn’t just a game but also a business, they’ll up-level their value as players by turning:

• Skill into silver:- When they sign that contract they’ll be trading their talent for cash, coins and maybe a few pieces of silver? Going from NIL to the pro space gets dollaz added to the bag.     
• Product into gold:- Every team starts out the season hoping to go as far as possible and to maybe one day win it all. This requires stellar performance for players to take home the gold (silver) trophy. 
• Hustle into rubies:- That’s when passion for the game makes a player/team red hot. We saw that with Boston and the Gamecocks. The Indiana Fever hope she’ll light the same fire there.      
• Status into diamond:- To have diamond status in the music biz is to forge impact in industry and beyond the charts. Miller’s fandom thinks she’s got the goods in the game and beyond the arena.          

Here’s some more on the market stats. The TV ratings for the Finals game was almost double from the semis two days earlier. It was also almost double since the last record high in 2002 when UCONN won the title. The jump in market appeal reminds us of what U.S. Women’s Soccer has done over the years.

In the next few weeks, the dust will settle before the start of the WNBA season. The veteran players and rookies will take the court to showcase their skills, improve the product, fire-up their passion and elevate the status of the league. You can bet Boston and Miller will be among names making the highlight reel.

Talkback: Did the Finals game between LSU and Iowa meet or beat fan expectations?

Tip: You go from ‘diamond in the rough’ to top draft pick by turning skill into silver, passion into rubies as well as hustle & flow into what makes winners go.

Tracks: Rihanna – Diamond – https://youtu.be/lWA2pjMjpBs

Ace Hood – Hustle Hard – https://youtu.be/r_dh16HQkqQ