NCAA might be setting the stage for a delayed college basketball season
Prepare yourself for the start of the college basketball season being shoved backwards on the calendar. Perhaps even way back.
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president for college basketball, released a statement Monday paving the way for possible changes forced by the coronavirus pandemic. The Pac-12 has already announced its basketball programs will not start play until at least Jan. 1.
Gavitt said the NCAA hopes to make a decision by mid-September on college hoops.
“In the coming weeks, the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Oversight Committees will take the lead with me in a collaborative process of finalizing any recommendations for consideration by the NCAA Division I Council for the start of the college basketball season,” Gavitt said in the statement. “By mid-September, we will provide direction about whether the season and practice start on time or a short-term delay is necessitated by the ongoing pandemic.”
Conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament were canceled last March when the virus began to spread in this country. In many areas, infection rates have increased since then.
“We recognize that we are living and operating in an uncertain time, and it is likely that mid-September will be just the first milestone for many important decisions pertaining to the regular season and the NCAA basketball championships,” Gavitt said in his statement. “While circumstances may warrant flexibility resulting in a different and perhaps imperfect season, the ultimate goal is to safely provide student-athletes and teams with a great college basketball experience.”
Kentucky players are currently in workouts with head coach John Calipari. Practices can begin 42 days before a team’s first game.
Gavitt has previously said he was confident there will be an NCAA Tournament in 2021.
“We’ll be flexible,” Gavitt told Andy Katz of NCAA Sports. “We’ll be nimble and we’ll deliver what the country is desperately looking for again and that’s just an incredible March Madness tournament in 2021.”
On that same call, UK Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart, who is serving as chair of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, said the NCAA will do whatever it can to put on a tournament.
“The absence of March Madness was absolutely difficult for our country. We can laugh — we can talk about how it really shouldn’t be that way, but the reality was that it is something we all rally around,” Barnhart said. “We will absolutely do all we can do — whatever assets, whatever resources, whatever it takes — to try and give our young people the chance to play the game they love.”
More reading:
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Get UK recruiting news and links at Next Cats
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Arkansas’ Isaiah Joe re-enters NBA draft
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This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 10:14 AM.
