Dawn Staley and Paige Bueckers are being policed for doing what male champs do every year

In the days since their national championship game win over South Carolina, Paige Bueckers and the rest of the UConn women's basketball team have been understandably busy, showing up everywhere from Good Morning America to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

If you're wondering why exactly that would be news, well, it's a good question: Making the talk-show rounds has been something champions across every sport have done for decades. Here are Philadelphia Eagles stars Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley on Fallon just a couple of months ago, in fact. And look, here's Mookie Betts on Jimmy Kimmel in the wake of the Los Angeles Dodgers' World Series win.

Unfortunately, Bueckers and her teammates had the audacity to win as women, and the inane fallout just goes to show the double standard that still exists.

Paige Bueckers, Dawn Staley get caught in ridiculous post-championship debate

The brouaha began on Thursday, when South Carolina fans on X started rolling their eyes at Bueckers and Co.'s media tour.

Of course, what one salty fan base might classify as a "world tour" is, again, just the norm for any other championship athlete. You know who knows this as well as anyone? Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley, who herself has been no stranger to the interview circuit after each of her three national titles (or her Olympic gold medal).

UConn fans were quick to point that out, arguing that if South Carolina fans hadn't noticed their own players being celebrated this way it was likely because Staley had hogged the spotlight for herself.

All of which is simply exhausting, and misses the actual point: None of this should be a big deal. Bueckers, Fudd and Co. have every right to soak up the attention they earned on the court; people wanted to watch them play and excel, and they did just that on one of the sport's biggest stages this March. Similarly, Staley has blossomed into one of the new faces of the women's game while building a dynasty in Columbia, and her work in the media is a not-insignificant part of that.

Whenever a male athlete, team or individual, wins a title, we allow them plenty of space without a second thought. So why would this be any different? Why should Bueckers apologize for the crowd her game draws, and the people that want to hear her because of it? How is women's basketball any worse off for her representation on national television?

UConn-South Carolina has grown into a deliciously fierce rivalry in recent years, and you can understand why that would bleed into the national discourse. But we can't allow it to set the game or its players back.