The N.C.A.A. has debuted a new weight room for its women’s basketball tournament in an attempt to move past a firestorm of condemnation for disparities between that competition in Texas and the men’s tournament in Indiana.
In a tweet on Saturday, the N.C.A.A. promoted the upgraded training options for the women’s tournament, which officials said they had long planned to have available ahead of the round of 16. This week’s critical onslaught led the association to apologize and to speed up its timeline.
Sedona Prince, an Oregon forward whose video of the original, far more limited amenities, helped bring wide attention to the situation in Texas, welcomed the change.
“Guess what, guys? We got a weight room!” Prince said in a video posted on social media on Saturday. “We got a ton more dumbbells. Look at all these racks for squats and whatever we want to do.”
And she thanked N.C.A.A. officials for responding to the complaints ahead of the tournament, which will begin on Sunday.
“We appreciate y’all,” she said. “Thank you so much for real.”
Although the frustrations surrounding training facilities may be ebbing, the N.C.A.A. also faced criticism for its decision to use rapid antigen tests at the women’s tournament, not the polymerase chain reaction tests that are in use at the men’s tournament and are considered the gold standard of infectious disease diagnostics.
On Friday, Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president, said the association had “complete confidence in all the medical protocols that have been put together.”
