It seems Rick Pitino isn’t the only college basketball coach advocating for May Madness. Longtime Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest coach in the history of Division 1 hoops, admitted he’s skeptical of the NCAA’s plan moving forward with COVID cases on the rise. “I would just like for the safety, the mental and physical health of players and staff to assess where we're at,” said Krzyzewski, as noted by ESPN’s Alex Scarborough. “We’re just plowing through this.”
The NCAA’s early-season slate has been littered with COVID postponements, forcing teams to adjust their schedules on the fly. Saturday’s highly-anticipated matchup between top-ranked Gonzaga and No. 2 Baylor was scrapped hours before tipoff after two members of Gonzaga’s traveling party returned positive tests.
The tenth-ranked Blue Devils, who fell to 2-2 following Tuesday’s loss to Illinois, have already weathered two postponements of their own—a November 25th matchup with Gardner-Webb and a second tilt Sunday against in-state rival Elon. With COVID expected to get worse before it gets better—the United States reported upwards of 220,000 new cases Tuesday along with 2,597 deaths, bringing the US count to 293,000 fatalities since the start of the pandemic—Coach K thinks now would be a good time for the NCAA to pump the brakes.
“People are saying the next six weeks are going to be the worst," warned Krzyzewski, suggesting the NCAA should hold off on playing until vaccines are readily available. "To me, it's already pretty bad.”
College football, the NCAA’s biggest breadwinner by far, has experienced similar complications playing through COVID. Ohio State, for instance, only made it through five regular-season games, falling short of the minimum six required to compete in the conference championship. Meanwhile the relatively unheralded likes of Coastal Carolina, Tulsa, Liberty and Buffalo have benefited greatly from the scheduling mayhem, emerging as legitimate top-25 teams. Thanks to COVID, we now inhabit a world where Notre Dame could soon be crowned champions of a conference—the ACC—they don’t even belong to. Unless the NCAA intervenes, college basketball could be headed for a similar farce of a season.
“By the end of the month, 20 million vaccine shots will be given. By the end of January or in February, another 100 million. Should we not reassess that? See just what would be best?" voiced Coach K. “I know the NCAA is worried about the end game. They're not as worried about the game we're playing right now."
Player safety doesn’t seem to be all that high on the NCAA’s priority list, but if anyone can get through to college basketball’s governing body, it’s a Hall-of-Fame coach with five championship rings and almost a half-century of influence on the sport.
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