South Carolina Basketball: CLA Sold Out Again; Boston NPOY Case

South Carolina basketball’s Aliyah Boston has reached her senior season. While she has the opportunity to return to school by utilizing the “Covid Redshirt” that all athletes were granted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she is expected to move on and become the first overall pick in this year’s WNBA Draft.

For Boston and her fellow seniors, their final regular season home game is a sellout. Sunday’s noon tip-off against Georgia has no tickets available as Columbia wants to send the team’s seniors out on a high note. The Gamecocks remain undefeated heading into their final two regular season games (the Sunday contest against Georgia and a Thursday matchup at Tennessee). The team will return to the CLA for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament as an early-round host site. They are also likely to play in Greenville at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight.

Boston is the reigning National Player of the Year in the sport, but she is not receiving as much hype about her 2022-2023 campaign. The reality is, though, Boston should be right at the top of the conversation for this year’s award, just like last season. Her traditional counting stats aren’t as high as they could be because her minutes played are so low due to her team’s success. When South Carolina blows out the majority of their schedule, Boston sits out at the end of most games. When she’s on the court, she faces double teams and triple teams on almost every possession yet still has improved her field goal percentage and lowered her turnover output.

Because of the number of minutes she is not needed on the court and her overall defensive value, Boston’s impact should be measured through rate stats rather than traditional counting stats. She is the only player in college basketball to rank in the top-three in both offensive rating and defensive rating. According to herhoopstats.com, both Boston’s offensive rating of 134.2 and 66.8 defensive rating are better than fellow NPOY candidates Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink. Clark is the best overall scorer in the country, but she scores at a less efficient rate than Aliyah Boston and is a far inferior defender. Reese has put up some big stat lines this season, but Boston completely shut her down when they played ten days ago. Brink is an extremely talented player, but she does not control a game like Aliyah Boston.

Caitlin Clark will probably win the National Player of the Year Award for women’s college basketball’s best player for the 2022-2023 season. That will be a mistake. Aliyah Boston is the best and most impactful player in basketball.