March Madness: Athletes balance privacy, online profile

Aliyah Boston recalls her parents prodding her to be more active on social media, to extend her brand as her basketball prowess began to draw national attention.

She said she would be more active — and then post just one photo in two months, which is no way for an athlete influencer to earn big money in the era of name, image and likeness compensation.

Eventually, the South Carolina superstar saw the light — and the green.

“With the NIL, my mom and my dad were like: this is the time for social media to continue to brand yourself,” Boston said. “That’s when I really started to post more.”

The NIL age has opened a vast new world of earning potential for athletes. Social media platforms, once solely windows into smaller worlds, are now heavily trafficked gateways to wider audiences and revenue streams. Social media also turbocharged March Madness, an event that already had communal elements — think bracket and office pool — before the internet even existed.

Taking advantage of this chaotic social media explosion to cash in requires a bit of savvy, discernment and engagement — lots of engagement.

“Some things you think will go viral and it goes nowhere,” said Jeffrey Weiner, senior vice president of sports marketing firm GSE Worldwide. “Some things you think are silly and no one’s going to care about and it goes viral. You never know. You shouldn’t worry about the ‘like’ numbers and things like that. Just post, post, post.”

Finding the right fit is key when it comes to NIL deals.

If an athlete hawks something they don’t believe in, it will show in their posts. No one is going to buy a product or solicit a business if the person promoting it appears to be going through the motions or comes off as a used car salesman — unless that’s the schtick they’re going for.

“I don’t want my page to turn into full of advertisements and me shoving things down people’s throats,” said Nebraska pole vaulter Jess Gardner, who has partnered with about 15 different brands and has more than 300,000 combined followers on TikTok and Instagram.

“That’s not why people are coming to my page," she said. "I make fun and lighthearted content, and so I can do that if I’m working with brands I actually love. That’s where I want to take the NIL route.”

Personality sells.

The tendency when promoting a product is to switch personalities, like a TV anchorperson shifting to an on-air persona. Many of the most successful influencers find a balance, staying true to their identity while still promoting the product.

Authenticity with a dash of amusement is the best bet.

“End of the day it’s a video distribution platform and it allows athletes to showcase their personality however they see fit,” said Julian Valentin, head of customer success for NIL platform Opendorse. “I always say with student athletes to only do what you’re comfortable with.”

That's the way Shaylee Gonzales approaches it.

The Texas guard has 206,000 TikTok followers on, 93,000 more on Instagram. Her posts are a mix of basketball, fashion, personal life and products she has deals with.

“The more you are yourself, the more people will like to follow you and feel like they know you,” she said. “I love posting things that I enjoy doing or hobbies I like to do.”

Find the right balance of business and whimsiness and social media opens the the NIL revenue stream.

Miami twin basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder are social media sensations who have cashed in on their online fame. Hanna Cavinder noted that the twins carefully choose what they post online.

“Everybody thinks they know you, but they only know the things you want to show them,” she said. “Obviously, I love connecting with my audience and my fans and being organic. They love the twin thing, so we love sharing that. But honestly, I live a more private life than people think.”

“You pick and choose what you want people to see,” she added. “And that’s just kind of how I go about it. Now, social media is more of my business, not more of my life.”

With more than 4.4 million followers on their shared TikTok account alone, they have become millionaires through NIL deals.

Those deals will likely increase during March Madness, especially after the Hurricanes upset No. 1 seed Indiana in the NCAA Tournament.

“I think what I love the most is it’s setting me up so much for the future,” Haley Cavinder said. “And name, image and likeness, all athletes, especially female athletes, if you use it the right way and to your advantage and you remain consistent, it’ll help you in the future.”

That's what got Boston's attention — well, after her parents noticed first.

The All-American has promoted Buick, Crocs, Orange Theory, Under Armour and Six Star Nutrition, among other brands. She will likely be one of the WNBA's top draft picks and could have a lucrative overseas career as well, but has already set a firm financial foundation.

“I have people in my corner who help me be able to work with brands, agencies,” she said. “It's been smooth.”

And lucrative.

Princeton's journey becomes face of March Madness' COVID era

Princeton forward Tosan Evbuomwan spent his first three college seasons enduring one disappointment after another.

Reaching the NCAA Tournament and advancing to the Sweet 16 made it all worthwhile.

After the 2020 Ivy League Tournament was canceled, after the entire 2020-21 season was canceled, after losing by two points in the conference's 2022 tourney title game and after watching three friends transfer just to keep playing in 2022-23, this resilient 6-foot-8 Brit has taken the Tigers on their deepest NCAA Tournament run since 1967 and has emerged as survivor of one of college basketball's strangest journeys.

“I think it did start with that COVID year," Evbuomwan said. ”There was a togetherness with that group. One of my favorite things about that time was the Zooms with one another, the Face Times, just talking about what we wanted the next season. We wanted a championship."

Now, the Ivy League tourney champions are the talk of the nation and an illustration of the impact two pivotal COVID years have had on the college basketball world.

Nobody outside the Princeton locker room expected this run — especially when three of last year's top five scorers left to take advantage of the NCAA's extra season. League rules allowed them only to use that season at a non-conference school.

But these Tigers pride themselves on perseverance. So instead of allowing the obstacles to derail their dreams or steal their spirit, they dug in, stuck around, forged a bond and finished the job.

“We missed out on a whole year. That hurt, watching essentially every other team in the country play," Princeton guard Matt Allocco said. "But I think it actually helped us in the long run. We were able to get together in the spring and practice, be with each other, build those relationships. It ended up being a great experience.”

Not everyone remembers the COVID years fondly.

San Diego State and Dayton saw their 2020 title hopes dashed by the NCAA's announcement. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo thought he had a Final Four team, too.

Northern Kentucky coach Darrin Horn's long-awaited return to March Madness was extended by three more years, prompting him to acknowledge two weeks ago that winning the 2020 Horizon League crown almost seemed like it never happened.

There's no way to replace what was lost — even for this year's 16 regional semifinalists.

Just ask San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher, whose team faces top-seeded Alabama on Friday in the Louisville Regional. The Aztecs were supposed to be a top-two seed three years ago.

"As I said all those years ago, as good as Malachi Flynn and KJ Feagin and Yanni Wetzell were, they never played in the NCAA Tournament one time in their careers. That’s unbelievable," Dutcher said. "Sometimes we take for granted just going and losing in the first round. Just to have a chance to play would have meant the world to those guys so I feel bad for that, that they never got a taste of March Madness.”

Meanwhile, at Creighton, it was a different scenario.

In 2021, the tourney provided the Bluejays with a bittersweet memory: Celebrating their first Sweet 16 appearance since 1974 inside the lonely Indianapolis “bubble.”

So when sixth-seeded Creighton knocked off third-seeded Baylor 85-76 last weekend to return to the Sweet 16, something suddenly felt far more satisfying about Friday's matchup against 15th-seeded Princeton in Louisville.

“We had a lot of fans there to celebrate at the end of the game with us (in Denver) and then you go back to the hotel with family and friends and have a chance to celebrate rather than go back to your room and eat another piece of rubber chicken out of a Styrofoam box, which is what we did in Indianapolis,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “To get to the Sweet 16 is a difficult thing to do, it was just a little more fun to celebrate that particular night."

What about 2021 national champion Baylor? Of course, the Bears had no complaints.

Kansas State coach Jerome Tang was an assistant on that title team and has used the lessons from that run as the model for his third-seeded Wildcats, who take on Izzo's seventh-seeded Spartans on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

Tang believes the similarities in roster composition will help Kansas State this weekend.

“We spent 30 days in the ‘bubble,’ right? And if you don’t like each other, nobody wants to spend that amount of time together,” Tang said. “That team, we really liked each other. We loved being together. I mean, it was fun to be around them. I feel the same way around these guys. We could be in a bubble for 30 days and we’ll be just fine. We’re going to have a great time.”

But nobody will have more fun than Princeton.

Just two years after watching everyone else's games, the Tigers need two wins to end a 48-year Final Four drought, two wins to become the first Ivy League team in the national semifinals since Penn in 1979 and two wins to cement their status as one of the greatest and most compelling advance-and-survive stories in tourney history.

And it might not have happened without Princeton's COVID experience.

“Having to watch those games on TV, the tournament, hurt. I think looking back on it, it fueled us for the next year,” Princeton guard Ryan Langborg said. "I think this year, this Sweet 16 run so far, it’s more than making up for it.”