Would playing a 2020-21 college basketball season be a Titanic mistake?
Now that — sarcasm alert — college football has settled its play-or-not-play dilemma, what about a 2020-21 basketball season?
Fittingly for life during the coronavirus pandemic, this past week did not bring clarity. Mixed signals were sent with triple-double oomph.
Dr. Carlos del Rio, one of eight doctors on the NCAA’s COVID-19 Advisory Panel, called for the suspension of college sports.
Citing the record number of deaths for a day earlier in the week, del Rio said of the continuing indecision, “I feel like the Titanic. We have hit the iceberg and we are trying to make decisions on what time should we have the band play.”
This comment caught the attention of ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas, who said, “I kind of know how the Titanic worked out.”
Meanwhile, two heavyweights in college basketball circles these days more or less said, “What iceberg?”
“As long as basketball is being played safely anywhere in the world this season, we’ll be playing as well,” said Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball. “Both regular season and certainly the tournament in 2021.”
Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart, who will chair the Men’s Basketball Committee (aka the Selection Committee) for the 2021 NCAA Tournament, echoed that sentiment.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to find a way to play a championship,” he told NCAA.com.
No wonder being asked if there will be a 2020-21 season stumped Dr. Rand McClain, co-founder of LCR Health, which is a Santa Monica, Calif.-based clinic that specializes in sports medicine.
“I’m not sure that is a medical question or one for the Amazing Kreskin,” he said in reference to the noted mentalist/entertainer in the 1970s.
College basketball can learn from professional leagues. Despite the assumption that activity is safer outdoors than indoors, the NBA and NHL have had minimal problems while baseball has been disrupted.
The NBA and NHL have the advantages of playing all games at one site, so there’s no travel. Plus, the players live in a so-called “bubble” in which contact with the outside world is minimized.
“What that tells me is there is a path for intercollegiate sports,” said Sheldon Jacobson, who studies sports analytics as a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Illinois. “The question is are people willing to walk it.”
But is it realistic to expect coaches, many of whom are older and thus more vulnerable to COVID-19, to live in the bubble? What about staffers? Referees? People working the scorer’s table?
Then there is an ongoing debate about the danger of “bubbles” separating athletes from the student body and making them quasi-professionals.
“They’re already professionals,” Bilas said. “That horse has left the multi-billion-dollar barn.”
Meanwhile, two Pac-12 basketball coaches voiced support of the conference’s decision to suspend sports activities through the end of the calendar year.
California Coach Mark Fox, who formerly was Georgia’s coach, told The Mercury News of San Jose, “If it’s not safe for football, which is nose-to-nose, to play before October or November, why would it be safe for basketball to do it, either?”
Arizona Coach Sean Miller suggested the Pac-12’s lead will be followed.
“A lot of conferences will move in the same direction as us,” he told The Mercury News. “I think it will be an active September.”
Mike Tranghese, a consultant to Southeastern Conference basketball, said that having time to decide is “probably the No. 1 positive” decision-makers have.
What might be an effective way to use that time?
Bilas bemoaned the cacophony of voices. Every conference seems to have its own panel of medical advisors.
Bilas called for regular briefings by the NCAA to keep everyone informed.
“This is a public trust,” he said. “These institutions all take federal aid. That’s taxpayers’ money. They’re always telling us they’re about education. Well, you need to educate the public, specifically your own players, your own staff, your own coaches.”
While the Big Ten and Pac-12 suspended play, the SEC, Atlantic Coast and Big 12 continue to prepare for a football season. Which side is correct?
“If the SEC pulls this off and they can play football and get through to the College Football Playoff, that doesn’t mean the decision the Pac-12 made or the Big Ten made was wrong,” Bilas said. “But if we have a negative outcome with a player in any conference moving forward with football, they’re going to be seen as wrong.
“God forbid somebody suffers a health catastrophe. They’re going to be looking at the conference leadership saying, what the hell are you doing?”
No Madness?
The uncertainty created by COVID-19 extends to the annual ritual that welcomes another college basketball season: Midnight Madness.
Kansas Coach Bill Self recently expressed doubt about KU staging its Late Night in the Phog unveiling of men’s and women’s basketball teams this year.
“The reality of having fans that soon from now — six or seven weeks from now — I don’t think it’s realistic,” Self told The Kansas City Star. “We’re not giving up on it (but) I don’t think it’s realistic.”
Beginning in 1985, Kansas has staged a Madness celebration every year. Then-coach Larry Brown began the tradition.
On how the impact of the pandemic on sports is trending, Self said, “It seems to me the longer it goes, there’s more uncertainty out there.”
Kentucky’s Madness tradition began in 1982. As with the uncertainty surrounding the scheduled game against UCLA, UK has not yet decided how — or if — there will be a Big Blue Madness this year.
Vote
On Thursday, the National Association of Basketball Coaches launched a program designed to encourage college athletes to vote in November and regularly participate in this country’s democratic process. The effort is nonpartisan, the NABC said.
Among those supporting the effort are three SEC head coaches: Cuonzo Martin (Missouri), Frank Martin (South Carolina) and Eric Musselman (Arkansas).
Other head coaches participating include Anthony Grant (Dayton) and Lon Kruger (Oklahoma).
Two other supporters of note are Indiana assistant coach James “Bruiser” Flint, whom speculation has as the likely replacement for Kenny Payne on the UK staff, and G.G. Smith, the son of former UK coach Tubby Smith and now his associate coach at High Point.
Electronic whistles
During a Zoom appearance for the Lexington Forum on Thursday, UK Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart predicted that safety measures dictated by COVID-19 in a 2020-21 season would include referees using electronic whistles.
Blowing a conventional whistle can project droplets of saliva into the air.
Barry Mano, the president of the National Association of Sports Officials, said that referees will need to adjust. The electronic whistle, which is made by a Canada-based company named Fox 40 International, is too big to hang on a lanyard draped around the neck. The referees would need to carry the electronic whistle in a hand and press a button in making a call.
“Very, very challenging for basketball referees because we use our hands a lot,” Mano said. “You’re signaling and stuff.”
Another adjustment will involve timing. Blowing a whistle alerts players, coaches and fans of a call faster than the pressing of a button. Maybe not by a lot, but any delay invites second-guessing.
“In basketball, you’re expecting an instantaneous whistle,” Mano said. “If there’s even a one-second delay, you’d be aghast. It would seem like an eternity.”
Ron Foxcroft — a retired referee who is now the chairman, founder and CEO of Fox 40 International — acknowledged that a slight delay is not helpful. “There’s no way around that,” he said.
But in the time of a pandemic, it’s an adjustment that must be made. Foxcroft said his company has sold about 100,000 electronic whistles since the pandemic was declared. “We just sent a huge order of thousands to the NCAA headquarters” to be used in football, he said.
There is an alternative in the “Fox 40 protective pouch,” which Foxcroft described as “a baggie over a whistle.” It’s being used in NBA games at Orlando.
Belated Happy birthday
To Daniel Orton. He turned 30 on Aug. 6. … To Keion Brooks. He turned 20 on Aug. 7. … To James Blackmon. He turned 56 on Aug. 7. … To Mark Coury. He turned 34 on Aug. 8. … To former Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson. He turned 83 on Aug. 8. … To Randy Embry. He turned 77 on Aug. 9. … To Bob Cousy. He turned 92 on Aug. 9. … To Sacha Killeya-Jones. He turned 22 on Aug. 10. … To Jason Parker. He turned 40 on Aug. 10. … To assistant coach Tony Barbee. He turned 49 Aug. 10. … To special assistant John Robic. He turned 57 Aug. 10. … To Kevin Knox. He turned 21 on Aug. 11. … To Gerald Fitch. He turned 38 on Aug. 12. … To Jim LeMaster. He turned 74 on Aug. 12. … To Antoine Walker. He turned 44 on Aug. 12.
Happy birthday
To DeMarcus Cousins. He turned 30 on Thursday. … To Ervin “Magic” Johnson. He turned 61 on Friday. … To Ryan Hogan. He turned 42 on Saturday. … To Terry Mills. He turned 72 on Saturday. … To James Young. He turns 25 on Sunday (today). … To Archie Goodwin. He turns 26 on Monday. … To Christian Laettner. He turns 51 on Monday. … To former UK assistant coach Boyd Grant. He turns 87 on Monday. … To Willie Cauley-Stein. He turns 27 on Tuesday. … To Kenny Walker. He turns 56 on Tuesday. … To former Florida coach Lon Kruger. He turns 68 on Wednesday.
