N.C. States Jannah Eissa and UC Irvines Diaba Konate are bringing visibility and inspiration to some Muslim women by wearing hjiabs while they play basketball.

They arent the first women to do it in NCAA Tournament play, but with record viewership and attendance they are certainly getting noticed.

Representation really matters, said Konate, whose team lost in the first round of the tournament to Gonzaga . Just having people, young Muslim women wearing the hijab, were not there yet. Just seeing us play, I think it makes me really happy because I used to have people that I was looking up to. Now having people that look up to me makes me happy.

Konate admires Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, who made NCAA history by being the first to wear a hijab in college basketball when she played for Memphis a decade ago. Abdul-Qaadir was instrumental in getting FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, to overturn its own ban on headgear in 2017 .