‘What if it were your son?’ College basketball suffers — and adjusts — in pandemic.

In a normal preseason, John Calipari would have players gather at his home most weekends. Why? One reason is to allow the players to get to know each other on a personal level. That’s considered important, especially during the summer and fall when team bonding is a priority. And there’s plenty of room to get comfortable in the Kentucky coach’s house. It reportedly encompasses nearly 10,000 square feet.

But Calipari acknowledged being uneasy about group gatherings inside his home during a pandemic. As of late October, the UK players have been to the coach’s home only once this preseason. “We watched the (NBA) playoffs outside near the pool,” Calipari said.

Kentucky basketball does not have immunity — herd or otherwise — from the need to adjust in the nothing-is-normal 2020 world of COVID-19.

Further complicating efforts to foster unity of spirit: UK’s locker room was made off limits. “We’re not using the hot and cold tubs,” Calipari said.

The adjoining lounge opened about two weeks ago. But chairs are spaced at least 6 feet apart and there’s a limit on how many players can be in there at any one time.

Arkansas can relate. The Razorbacks have not had their customary Friday night dinners at Coach Eric Musselman’s house. And …

“We missed our Friday boxing class or Friday hot yoga,” Musselman said. “Friday conditioning, the coaching staff did it as well.”

Alabama can relate. Coach Nate Oats, who contracted the coronavirus in July, said that his players arrive, change into practice clothing, work out and then leave.

“The lounge area has been closed,” Oats said. “Not able to hang out and play pool and shuffleboard and all that type of stuff.”

Dating back to his time as Buffalo coach, he’s had his players gather off campus for two or three days each preseason to get to know each other better. The agenda has called for such group exercises as running a 3-mile obstacle course, Navy Seal training in water and firefighter drills.

This year, Oats reduced the getaway to a single day.

Even the on-court practice activities are more limited in scope. Calipari spoke of UK players and coaches wearing a “chip” to monitor social distancing and help with contact tracing if needed.

The Southeastern Conference provided the chips — manufactured by KINEXON — for its football and men’s and women’s basketball teams. Staffers at the SEC office also wear the “SafeTags,” which are about the size of the face of a watch and worn as a wristband or on a lanyard. A red warning light flashes when the wearer is within 6 feet of someone else.

“Please don’t tell me that, well, an 18- or 19-year-old may get sick, but they won’t die,” Calipari said in a Zoom appearance for the Lexington Rotary Club. “What if it were your son?”

Outside the SEC, the Houston Cougars did not work out as a team. Three players at a time would rotate through the weight room and a variety of practice drills.

“We call it the car wash,” Houston Coach Kelvin Sampson said.

Even with the coronavirus pandemic, Calipari said he was wary about dividing his team.

“It can’t be small groups,” he said. “Those are the ‘sneakies.’ They want to go do their thing with two or three guys because they can go and no one will tell.

“There are no ‘sneakies’ now.”

Team leader Keion Brooks said Kentucky players have been diligent about following the guidelines recommended by medical personnel.

If players test positive and must quarantine, “it’s not going to be (because of) something we did,” he said.

Life in a bubble

Calipari has touted the UK “bubble” as exemplary. The players have individual rooms and bathrooms. A chef prepares meals in the lodge. The practice facility is no farther away than about a 20-yard walk across a parking lot.

Brooks conceded that compliance hasn’t always been easy.

“This weird lifestyle where you go to the gym and back to your room, I know it kind of sucks,” he said. “Especially with a younger team that doesn’t get to experience what college is really like. The social aspect: going to class, meeting all these new people and stuff. But we’re doing the best that we can. We’re taking it in stride.”

Calipari told Rotarians that confinement in their rooms could be hazardous to the players’ mental health.

“If they don’t break the ‘bubble,’ they’re good,” he said. “But that means they’re in that room 12 hours a day. … (A positive test would mean) you can’t leave the room for 14 days. They don’t do that to hardened criminals.”

By definition, social distancing suggests disunity. But, however counter-intuitive it might seem, COVID-19 has been cited as a means of tightening a team bond.

“We’re really close to each other because we have no distractions,” UK big man Olivier Sarr said in late October. “It’s helping the team chemistry so far.”

‘Really difficult’

Scheduling has been affected.

Kentucky’s trip to London to play Michigan on Dec. 6 was postponed.

Alabama is playing in the Maui Invitational.

“I was super stoked about it,” sophomore Jaden Shackelford said. “Although we’re not going (to Hawaii), we have to go handle business.”

The 2020 Maui Invitational will be played in Asheville, N.C.

An NCAA edict prevents teams from playing exhibitions or closed scrimmages to get in dress rehearsals before starting the season.

“That’s really difficult, especially for a young team like ours,” Mississippi State Coach Ben Howland said.

What about Kentucky, which is annually one of the youngest teams in college basketball?

“Where you are, you don’t get to see real freshmen,” Howland playfully said. “You get to see top-20 freshmen every year. Your experience dealing with freshmen is skewed.”

Not all the ramifications caused by COVID-19 are negative. Scottie Lewis and Keyontae Johnson cited the pandemic as a reason they chose to play another season for Florida.

Recruiting has been impacted.

Calipari sounded happy in telling the Rotarians that he had not made a recruiting trip in six months. “I am as fresh as I’ve ever been,” he said.

The UK coach even welcomed the possibility of future recruiting budgets being slashed.

Be ready to adjust

Arguably no SEC player had a more interesting offseason in terms of the coronavirus than Tennessee sophomore Santiago Vescovi. He chose to return to his native Uruguay.

“Because COVID was, like, a smaller thing (there) … ,” he said. “We had, like, 60 active cases in the whole country.”

For Vescovi, it was a second straight eventful year. He joined the Tennessee team in late December last season, flying from Australia to help the Vols deal with the loss of Lamonte Turner to a season-ending injury. A week after arriving in Knoxville, he played his first game.

“2019 was crazy, too,” Vescovi said, “but nothing to compare to 2020.”

Whatever challenges college teams face with COVID-19 this season, Sampson suggested players be ready to adjust.

“In Alaska, it’s cold,” the Houston coach said. “You should put your coat on instead of complaining about the cold. In Kuwait, it can be 135 degrees out there in that desert. Take your coat off.”

For Sampson, a death toll approaching a quarter of a million Americans due to COVID-19 puts basketball in perspective.

“To say we’re going through adversity, I don’t think is fair,” he said. “Let’s say it’s outside the norm.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 12:33 PM.

Jerry Tipton

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-472-4091

Jerry Tipton has covered Kentucky basketball beginning with the 1981-82 season to the present. He is a member of the United States Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame. Support my work with a digital subscription