[BosCard]

By saying "there were too many things that got too many people's attention. All the NIL stuff.", note that Tara specifically linked NIL to the chemistry issue. I think what she meant by that was the NIL situation at Stanford caused problems with the team. My guess is a lot of jealousy and resentment crept into the mix and that was hugely detrimental to team chemistry. How could it not? Cam and Haley were the "haves" - the All-Americans, getting all the media attention, the of immense proportions social media following, podcast, and getting paid a bunch of NIL money. The rest of the team was the "have nots" - role players and getting paid squat, while they were on the same team and working just as hard on the court. It's pretty tough for 40 year old adults to deal with that sort of stuff in life and still be "team players". These are 19-22 year olds. I'm not sure Tara could have done anything to fix it.

Wouldn't that be the same at a school like Iowa, where Caitlin Clark gets all the glory? Since they made the final game, it didn't seem to bother their team chemistry that much. Wonder what the difference was?

I think you have answered the question.  Winning "solves" a lot of problems.  Everything seems great at LSU right now but there probably would have been a lot more hand wringing and finger pointing if they had lost to Utah in the NCAA tournament.

[BosCard]

By saying "there were too many things that got too many people's attention. All the NIL stuff.", note that Tara specifically linked NIL to the chemistry issue. I think what she meant by that was the NIL situation at Stanford caused problems with the team. My guess is a lot of jealousy and resentment crept into the mix and that was hugely detrimental to team chemistry. How could it not? Cam and Haley were the "haves" - the All-Americans, getting all the media attention, the of immense proportions social media following, podcast, and getting paid a bunch of NIL money. The rest of the team was the "have nots" - role players and getting paid squat, while they were on the same team and working just as hard on the court. It's pretty tough for 40 year old adults to deal with that sort of stuff in life and still be "team players". These are 19-22 year olds. I'm not sure Tara could have done anything to fix it.

Wouldn't that be the same at a school like Iowa, where Caitlin Clark gets all the glory? Since they made the final game, it didn't seem to bother their team chemistry that much. Wonder what the difference was?

I think you have answered the question.  Winning "solves" a lot of problems.  Everything seems great at LSU right now but there probably would have been a lot more hand wringing and finger pointing if they had lost to Utah in the NCAA tournament.