SAN ANTONIO (AP) NCAA basketball administrators apologized to the womens basketball players and coaches after inequities between the mens and womens tournament went viral on social media and vowed to do better.

NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt vowed to do better during a zoom call Friday morning, a day after photos showed the difference between the weight rooms at the two tournaments .

I apologize to the womens student-athletes, coaches and committee for dropping the ball on the weight room issue in San Antonio, well get it fixed as soon as possible, Gavitt said.

During the call, other differences were raised: There are 68 teams in the mens filed, 64 in the women; and the NCAA pays for the mens National Invitational Tournament, but not the womens NIT.

The field size and NIT, those would be decisions made in conjunction with membership, Gavitt said. Those are not decision we could make independently. They are good questions and its timely to raise those issues again.

In a step to solve the weight room issue, the NCAA modified space in the convention center to turn it into a useable workout facility. That work should be completed Saturday. The NCAA had offered to put a weight-lifting area in the open space next to the practice courts, but coaches didnt want that because then other teams would be in the vicinity when they were practicing.

We fell short this year in what we have been doing to prepare in the last 60 days for 64 teams to be in San Antonio. We acknowledge that, said NCAA Senior Vice President of womens basketball Lynn Holzman, who is a former college basketball player. Last night we did have a call with our coaches and team administrators in a way to solicit feedback and their experience thus far.

Yesterday was the first day our teams had the opportunity to have practice, she said. Part of that call was to get feedback on potential solutions to address some of those concerns, including the weight room issue.

While the difference between the mens and womens weight facility was clearly jarring, in the manual that the NCAA had sent to teams before the tournament they specifically had said that no weights would be available until after the second round of the tournament.

This is the first time in the womens tournament that every game is being played on neutral sites. In the past, campuses would host the opening rounds so teams would be able to schedule weight room times in those on-campus.

Gavitt said that the NCAA will use this opportunity for better collaboration of mens and womens basketball.

What we pull together in months and years, we tried to do in weeks and days, he said. Thats meant some shortcomings. I apologize and feel terrible about anything that falls short of our lofty expectations. Some of those short comings weve seen in Indianapolis as well.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said its unacceptable for anything to fall short for just the women.

Theres a miscommunication at the highest level of the NCAA. Either its miscommunication, no communication or just not downright caring if people know whats happening on our (womens) side of things, Staley said. And that must stop. ... The NCAA owns March Madness in all its luxury. Then it should feel luxurious to every student athlete, man or woman.

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