We as women’s basketball fans are all here for Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale on Dancing With the Stars.
Ogunbowale and the women’s basketball world are still basking in the afterglow of her two game-winning shots in the Final Four that lifted the Fighting Irish to the National Championship.
Athletes by nature have to be quick on their feet, so when ABC announced that there would be a “Dancing With the Stars” athletes edition, it fit like a glove considering that previous seasons of Dancing have been won by athletes.
Arike Ogunbowale is Gleb’s youngest partner he’s ever had. She is one year younger than Sasha Pieterse. #DWTS
— DWTS Stats & Info (@DancingABCStats) May 1, 2018
Via her first performance with Gleb Savchenko where she danced the salsa to Whitney Meyer’s “Them Girls (Chin Up)”, Ogunbowale advanced to Dancing’s next round with a 20 score.
Not only is the women’s basketball community in her corner, so is the Notre Dame community as well as her hometown of Milwaukee.
DSHA students hold pep rally for Arike Ogunbowale before she goes dancing https://t.co/XsUbvDH2Vd pic.twitter.com/HgQpa8w2Cb
— WISN 12 NEWS (@WISN12News) April 27, 2018
Ogunbowale was able to be a contestant on the special athletes rendition of DWTS because of an NCAA waiver which stated that she is there “unrelated to her basketball abilities.”
Apparently, the NCAA was not watching the same Final Four us at Beyond The W were watching and Indy also was not watching the same Final Four the rest of the country was watching.
Onlookers are also looking at Ogunbowale’s time on Dancing as a potential game-changer for collegiate athletics in terms of athletes being able to make money off their name and likeness as schools and their coaches are.
Can anyone explain what the NCAA is doing here? Does this mean R.J. Barrett can appear on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and keep the money? Why the “about face” on athletes earning money based upon athletic reputation? https://t.co/KzqDmCPEhK
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) April 26, 2018
Arike Ogunbowale is allowed to be paid to be on "Dancing With The Stars" because the NCAA determined her appearance is "unrelated to her basketball abilities." What the Sam Hill …? I guess those two buzzer beating 3s in the Final Four were just an illusion.
— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) April 29, 2018
Perspective | As Arike Ogunbowale dances with gusto, the NCAA sidesteps with cowardice. And columnist Sally Jenkins doesn't mince words. https://t.co/zPKSBDleCZ
— Post Sports (@PostSports) May 2, 2018
(Video Credit: ABC)
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
