But one thing it demonstrates for sure is that athletes are better than most at transference. And Ogunbowale, the first college athlete on the show, is a master class in transference. Her combination of energy and ease, her can-do-ness in the moment, is the direct result of 80 hours a week of dual responsibilities and pressures. This is a kid who brought a 3.5 GPA out of high school in Milwaukee while winning four state club titles in soccer.
Those remarkable shots she hit to beat U-Conn. and Mississippi State to clinch a national championship were no freaks. She worked for them, she had confidence in them, and she deserved for them to go in. She is juggling the academic load of a junior at Notre Dame while sporting a national championship ring for one of the most demanding programs in the country, and on top of that, in the space of just a week she learned a highly trained dance and performed it on national television.