Roundup: NCAA not likely to give winter sports athletes more eligibility
If you thought there’s nothing going on in sports, you’d be wrong:
▪ Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports reports that, “the NCAA is unlikely to grant an extra year of eligibility for student athletes who participated in winter sports and had their seasons cut short due to the coronavirus.
“An extra year of eligibility is still in play for student athletes involved with spring sports.”
▪ Kentucky’s high school basketball tournaments are not canceled yet, but the tickets are being refunded, reports Jared Peck of the Herald-Leader.
“No change in official status of boys and girls state basketball events! Remain postponed. Events had to be ‘canceled’ through Ticketmaster to permit refunds. When a final determination is made, schools will be first to know,” the KHSAA said on Twitter.
▪ Speaking of refunds, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart sent a letter to ticket-holders offering refunds, but suggesting fans make “donations” back to the program. During a national health crisis, with medical shortages and economic collapse, not sure how that’s going to go over with fans.
▪ Kentucky basketball finished eighth in the final Associated Press college basketball poll. Kansas was ranked No. 1. Louisville finished 14th in the final rankings.
▪ Ben Roberts of the Herald-Leader has a Kentucky basketball mailbag with answers to your questions about Immanuel Quickly and EJ Montgomery.
“There were so many good questions on UK’s stay-or-go decisions, the Cats’ recruiting outlook for 2020 and beyond, and several other topics that we’ll break up the responses in multiple posts over the next few days.
“Part one will concentrate primarily on the current UK players and what they might be thinking about returning to Lexington for another season.”
▪ Kentucky football hired a new safeties coach on Wednesday. He’s Frank Buffano, who served as director of football operations for the past seven seasons. Buffano coached with Mark Stoops at Arizona.
▪ SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey held a teleconference Wednesday to talk about the league’s decision to cancel all spring sports and spring championships.
Among the highlights:
▪ Sankey said he was certainly open to giving spring sports athletes another year of eligibility. He said it was not just an issue involving seniors.
▪ Spring football games are canceled, but not necessarily spring football practice. A decision will be made about those after April 15.
▪ Sankey said he was “full steam ahead” as far as the SEC Football Media Days scheduled for mid-July in Atlanta. But the commissioner said he was full-steam ahead on the SEC Basketball Tournament last Wednesday, as well.
▪ Sankey was asked if the NBA decides it’s OK to resume play, will other sports follow suit? “I don’t know that to be true,” said the commissioner.
▪ Jerry Tipton has more of the details from Sankey’s teleconference.
▪ If you missed it, the Texans signed former UK wide receiver Randall Cobb to a three-year, $27 million contract. Cobb has played previously for the Green Bay Packers and last year was with the Dallas Cowboys.
▪ Sports Illustrated did a video on Tyler Herro’s spending since he entered the NBA as a rookie with the Miami Heat.
▪ Former SEC sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung announced Wednesday that she has tested positive for the coronavirus. Formerly with ESPN, Hartung is now a correspondent for ABC News. “I knew something was wrong as soon as I woke up,” she said.
▪ Ex-Louisville basketball star Donovan Mitchell, now of the Utah Jazz, was on “Good Morning America” earlier this week talking about his isolation after testing positive for COVID-19.
▪ The NBA and Turner are giving fans free access to NBA League Pass until April 22 so they can watch all games from this season, plus classic games.
▪ No games. No players. No problem for Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman, who ran a virtual practice online.
▪ Nicholasville native and current Ohio State basketball coach Chris Holtmann filmed a video urging Ohioans to work together through the coronavirus crisis.
▪ A member of the Georgia support staff has tested positive for the coronavirus.
▪ Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell is urging his players to lead after the college baseball season was canceled, writes Rick Bozich of WDRB.
“The reason Dan McDonnell has directed all those University of Louisville baseball teams to the College World Series isn’t simply because he understands how to identify and instruct talent.
“McDonnell is a life coach as much as he is a baseball coach — and he has demonstrated that again as his team has dispersed with its season canceled because of the novel coronavirus.
“Shocked to disappointment to anger quickly shifted to the default mindset that McDonnell has long preached: No self pity.”
▪ Jon Hale of the Courier-Journal has an interesting story about how Kentucky’s 1918 football season was cut short by the Spanish Flu.
▪ The Louisiana Derby is still scheduled to run as planned on Saturday at the Fair Grounds without fans. Trained by Mark Casse, Enforceable is the favorite at 7-2. Silver State and Modernist are the co-second choices at 6-1.
▪ I wrote a column on Casse, who says he almost got out of the game, but was actually encouraged by the federal charges against 27 people, including trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro, for an alleged doping scheme in horse racing.
▪ J. Keeler Johnson has a cheat sheet on the Louisiana Derby for America’s Best Racing.
▪ Golf courses across Kentucky are still operating through the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Josh Moore of the Herald-Leader.
“Golf courses around the state are taking additional precautions, but as of Wednesday remained in operation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Neither golf courses nor public parks were specifically cited in the latest executive order from Gov. Andy Beshear’s office, which called for numerous entertainment and recreational venues to close by 5 p.m. Wednesday.”
▪ We end with this:
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 8:22 AM.
