Being in COVID-19 quarantine ‘not a walk in park’ for Smart
AUSTIN — Beneath a surface of restraint, Shaka Smart was boiling.
And maybe one day the Texas coach will fully unleash like he seemingly wanted to Monday morning during a Zoom session with reporters. Maybe Smart will rip into the NCAA, chastise the Big 12, and go nuclear on the transparent pursuit of revenue by athletic departments seeking to recoup pandemic-driven losses.
But Smart, back from a transformative bout with COVID-19 that “was not a walk in the park,” tried to remain as buttoned-up as possible on his second day out of quarantine. He didn’t want to talk much about sitting in isolation during the Longhorns’ 80-79 home loss to No. 24 Oklahoma last Tuesday — they had eight scholarship players available and barely practiced the preceding week — offering only a dispirited review: “Not very enjoyable.”
“I’ll be honest with you. I had significant symptoms from it,” Smart said. “And when you go through that kind of stuff, it certainly, you know, swirls some things around your mind. So that’s a much longer conversation than we have time for now. I’ll be happy to talk to you about it sometime, maybe after the season.”
Sunday marked the first time in 19 days that every member of his roster was available for practice.
And unless Monday’s round of COVID-19 testing goes haywire — always a possibility — Smart expects to have a full roster available for Tuesday’s game against No. 2 Baylor at the Erwin Center.
Smart is unsurprisingly amped for this litmus test for his No 6 Longhorns (11-3, 5-2 Big 12) against coach Scott Drew’s undefeated wrecking ball (16-0, 8-0). His eyes still sparkled and his vigor still shot through the screen when questions about the Bears arose.
But moments of normalcy spent on standard basketball threads like defensive strategy or forward Kai Jones’ playmaking travails were overshadowed by the coach’s troubled tenor. After grappling with a virus that has so far claimed more than 440,000 American lives, concern and frustration had frayed Smart’s customary upbeat energy.
“I think it is a little frustrating, to be honest, that there is a wide variety of opinions, even amongst the doctors,” Smart said. “One thing that I’ve learned, going through this myself, is that because COVID is relatively new, it’s not like we have years and years of experience dealing with this from a medical standpoint.
“They said it’s safe to play the games, then we’re going to give our guys the opportunity to do that. I think if you talk to the majority of our guys, they want to play. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been moments where, for some of them they’ve been like, ‘Wow, this is really, really strange,’ and some thinking on what should we be doing.”
Ask a coach or player about the mental, emotional and physical drain of playing through the noxious haze of COVID-19, and they’ll almost always point to how it’s become a universal experience for anyone associated with athletics.
Smart understands sympathy won’t save Texas even after traversing through weeks of underpopulated facilities, practice sessions with a handful (or fewer) of scholarship players and deepening uncertainty. Baylor Big 12 player of the year favorite Jared Butler, senior guard MaCio Teague, P.J. Tucker clone Mark Vital and the rest of the Bears won’t offer any charity Tuesday night.
“A game like the Oklahoma game, we were certainly far from full strength. You certainly could have made an argument that, you know, (it’s a) tough position for our guys to be in,” Smart said. “But according to the conferences rules, we were told to play.
“So we’re just trying to roll with the punches, man. We’re trying to do the best we can. We’re fortunate and appreciative to be back on the court together as a whole for the first time in a while, and obviously, we’ve got an exciting game coming up.”
Full-strength Texas against full-strength Baylor is the league’s most compelling matchup. A Longhorns win would alter the narrative as the Big 12 regular season heads to its conclusion.
From an entertainment aspect, this is as good as it gets in February. But while Smart is preparing with the same diligence as always, it’s become impossible not to view this world through a different lens.
“There’s a lot up there for me,” Smart said. “And I think just to sum it up, maybe a prioritization of what matters most — both as it relates to our team and also as it relates to my family, loved ones. The one thing when you have this thing is, and I’m sure other people maybe went through this, is it certainly gives you a little bit of a second sight to see some things a little more clearly.”