College Basketball Season Might be Paused...or Cancelled

[TrueblueCATfan]

I read yesterday that Rupp is only allowing 15% fans

[Joneslab]

Bethune-Cookman is the first school to cancel its entire 2020-2021 season.

[Jload]

The only good I can derive from this is if they do cancel the season, 2 consecutive years of no NCAA tourney might finally break the despotic hold the NCAA has over college basketball. I can dream I guess.

[lilproUK98]

Season won't be cancelled and the Tournament will be played. Other than that, it'll be interesting to see how many games end up being played in the regular season. And if conference tourneys will be played.

[Joneslab]

Season won't be cancelled and the Tournament will be played. Other than that, it'll be interesting to see how many games end up being played in the regular season. And if conference tourneys will be played.

Gun to my head I'm going to say programs like Kentucky will play 18-22 games because too much money is at stake to just totally cancel.

I can see a situation where we play the Champions Classic and then everything else is shut down until January and conference seasons start. But I believe we'll get at least some basketball before 2021.

A more interesting thing will be how teams will deal with a case and/or quarantining when there's a positive test. In football this doesn't hurt you as much; you miss out on one game, or maybe no games if you're in a bye.

But with basketball you might be out four games. That's obviously big for a season that's slated to only have 25 games total.

[Blue Heaven]

Gun to my head I'm going to say programs like Kentucky will play 18-22 games because too much money is at stake to just totally cancel.

I can see a situation where we play the Champions Classic and then everything else is shut down until January and conference seasons start. But I believe we'll get at least some basketball before 2021.

A more interesting thing will be how teams will deal with a case and/or quarantining when there's a positive test. In football this doesn't hurt you as much; you miss out on one game, or maybe no games if you're in a bye.

But with basketball you might be out four games. That's obviously big for a season that's slated to only have 25 games total.

I thought this was about "saving lives". Once you start messing with peoples money, then I guess lives take a back seat. It is supposedly easier to get on with football because it is played outside. Syracuse plays in a dome though so there goes that. Unless they are playing somewhere else this season. I am not sure. Still. It's ok for football players to smash into each other with the blood, sweat, and spit flying but college basketball may be cancelled. I'm sorry, but none if this makes any since. Convince me otherwise.

[Joneslab]

I haven't seen any studies about how/how much COVID is transmitted during sporting events, but I do know they've traced outbreaks to gyms. Breathing heavily in closed spaces is not ideal during a pandemic. And we had an outbreak here in Kentucky where a bunch of high school players got it after weightlifting.

But I'm not sure how dangerous or not basketball is, particularly when it's played by 18-22-year-olds who generally do not suffer much from this disease. (The officials, scorekeepers, and aging coaches are another story.)

I do know Cal has said he would abide by the fourteen-day quarantine rule if a player gets it, which makes sense. Cal tends to be extremely careful with slight injuries, so it'd make sense that he would immediately shut things down if a player tested positive for COVID. He's generally extremely careful with their health just in normal times.

[Joneslab]

^ And adding to that, if they're testing like they should then basketball should be able to be played. That's IF they're testing like they should and programs are following safety protocols properly.

The sticking point about the Orlando bubble was how often conferences wanted players to be tested. ESPN wanted there to be stringent testing, but some conferences are not testing nearly as much as the CDC recommends, so ESPN backed out.

Here are the SEC's (very lengthy) guidelines about what they're going to do. They list basketball as "high risk."

http://a.espncdn.com/sec/media/2020/...s%20Winter.pdf

[Joneslab]

Again noticing some college basketball people arguing the season needs to be paused. Jeff Goodman is saying tonight he’s talked to people who want the nonconference schedules totally canceled.

[Jload]

I have no doubt Cal will be ultra conservative in his Covid policies. His concern for playershealth and trying to protect their futures has been very consistent since he got here, I have always admired this about him. UK has always been very lucky with its coaches in this area( since Rupp at least) say what you will about him I always admired Pitinos decision not to play Anderson in the title game although it might have cost him a National Championship.

[Joneslab]

I have no doubt Cal will be ultra conservative in his Covid policies. His concern for playershealth and trying to protect their futures has been very consistent since he got here, I have always admired this about him. UK has always been very lucky with its coaches in this area( since Rupp at least) say what you will about him I always admired Pitinos decision not to play Anderson in the title game although it might have cost him a National Championship.

The only thing about Anderson is that he was dominating practice. That's coming straight from Wayne Turner.

If he was out there going full-bore in practice I never understood how he couldn't play.

[Joneslab]

Here's Jeff Goodman's article on the comment I mentioned above. He argues for scrapping the non-conference schedule because of rising COVID cases/hospitalizations, and because more than 20 programs are shut down right now.

I don't think 20 programs being quarantined is a huge number, but the question is whether the virus is going to subside here in the coming weeks. If the thing keeps flaring out of control then I don't see any way any sport is played. If we get a reprieve and the cases/hospitalizations go down, then you run the risk of cancelling and then having to try and re-start--a la Big 10 and Pac 12 football.

https://watchstadium.com/ncaa-should-scrap-non-conference-schedules-for-college-basketball-this-season-11-12-2020/

[Joneslab]

Rick Pitino joins the chorus, says all nonconference games should be nixed. Says season should be pushed back and we should have “May Madness.”

[Catsrock]

Rick Pitino joins the chorus, says all nonconference games should be nixed. Says season should be pushed back and we should have “May Madness.”

That makes it official. There should be a full season. 😜

[Joneslab]

I noticed Seth Greenberg adamantly disagreed with Pitino. Said that we needed to do what college football has done: start the season and then prepare for pauses once it's started.

Again, I don't believe any sport will be played if the situation keeps getting worse in America. What's happening now with COVID is very close to untenable.

I hold out hope that things will slacken and we will trend downward the way we did back in August. But that's just hope.