MINNEAPOLIS — To watch Aliyah Boston play in person is so much different than to see her on a television screen. There’s something about seeing and hearing her on the court that makes her impact feel that much more evident, that makes her greatness that much more obvious. Both of those things compound in ways that hit you over the head even though her overall play, like her personality, is quieter and more reserved.
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She’s not the player who is going to trash talk and throw down. She’s not the player who pounds her chest and turns to the fans, telling them to turn up. She’s the player who’s going to block a player so hard they hit the ground and then turn around with the slightest of smiles, only large enough to see her set of braces — yet another reminder of her youth and the fact that, despite her dominance, she still has another year at the college level.
If ever there were a way to put together a quiet 23 points and 18 rebounds in a Final Four game, Boston did it Friday night as the top-seeded Gamecocks advanced to the national title game with a 72-59 win over No. 1 seed Louisville. They’ll face No. 2 seed UConn here Sunday night.
It wasn’t as if there was a single quarter in which she overly dominated, simply because she impacts every play when she’s on the floor. When that happens, viewers become a bit more desensitized to her impact. Like a plane going through turbulence, eventually the bumps feel smaller and smaller until the traveler becomes accustomed to it. But then, when you get to smooth skies, you realize exactly how bumpy it had been.
That’s Boston. She makes life hard for opponents on every play, to the point that they might not even realize how much her length and impact change a game until she goes to the bench. Then, the gaps in South Carolina’s defense widen ever so slightly or the lane to the hoop appears just a bit more open.
There is no player on the floor who doesn’t feel her impact in some way.
“She’s 6-5. She has good hands. She moves well,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “She finishes on both sides of the floor. She goes after the ball. It doesn’t take me to tell you what she’s good at. I’ve got a 6-year-old that can sit there and watch the game and be like, yeah, she’s good.”
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Her growth is what makes South Carolina as dangerous as it is.
As her body has developed — losing weight and adding muscle mass — her ability to finish through contact has improved. And she values those plays even more now because she understands the game can be won at the free-throw line. Every time she attacks the basket, an opponent risks getting into foul trouble. That was evident at the end of the third quarter, as she pulled down a rebound and went back up with it, finishing through Emily Engstler (who picked up her fourth foul).
Boston’s perimeter game has come a long way since her freshman season. At 33 percent shooting in the midrange and 28 percent shooting on 3-pointers, neither percentage is enough to face guard or deny her, but it’s enough to force opponents to bring their posts out and guard her. This serves the Gamecocks two-fold. First: She can hit the long shot, which she displayed late in the game, sinking a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Second: When her defender steps out to guard her, the paint opens for the rest of the Gamecocks to do work.
But perhaps the area of her game that has advanced the most in the last three seasons, and the way it has most obviously benefited South Carolina this season, is her vision for passing. Her two assists per game don’t encapsulate what her passing means to the Gamecocks, because it isn’t just the easy pass that she’s able to make. As Louisville crowded her, throwing body after body at her, Boston stepped through and made the right decision. At the end of the second quarter, as Hailey Van Lith, Olivia Cochran and Engstler seemingly surrounded her, Boston hooked a pass to Brea Beal for a wide-open 2-foot shot.
“We have to play through her,” coach Dawn Staley said. “It doesn’t mean that she has to shoot the ball, but every time she touches the ball, she draws a crowd. … When we started going in to her, playing inside-out, more shots from the outside started falling.”
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And in Minneapolis — love it (South Carolina fans) or hate it (Louisville fans) — more fans finally got to see her in person on this stage. A year after she played in front of a nearly empty arena and missed two layups for a shot at the national championship game, Boston is back and speaking even more loudly with her game. Those national player of the year awards (of which she has many now) suddenly have become less debated the longer the Gamecocks’ season lasts and more basketball fans watch her and feel how she plays. Suddenly, when you can realize, in person, the distance she stretches to get a rebound, how far opponents will go out of their way to avoid her, how it seems coaches always have an eye on Boston, the debate for the nation’s best player becomes a little more muted.
Boston is the best player in the country. Let this be the end of the discussion. On Friday night, an arena full of people in Minneapolis felt her presence —23 and 18. In a Final Four game. Against a No. 1 seed.
Boston is the greatest in the game this season, and for those lucky enough to see her in person, we have another 40 minutes to enjoy the show Sunday night.
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(Photo: Ben Solomon / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
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