Bubble wrapped
UH part of numerous venues, hotels with ‘controlled’ setting
As this college basketball season was played during a pandemic, a nasal swab became standard-issued equipment as much as sneakers and shorts.
Since last summer, players across the country were administered COVID-19 testing on a weekly basis. That increased to several times a week before games to a required seven consecutive days of negative tests before the 68 teams, which include the University of Houston, arrived this week in Indianapolis for the start of the NCAA Tournament.
It’s part of what the NCAA calls a “controlled environment” as it attempts to limit risks to players and coaches during the three-week March Madness event. While several safeguards are in place, the NCAA’s measures are nowhere close to the restrictions placed within last year’s NBA’s bubble in Orlando, Fla.
“I don’t think it will be much of an adjustment, because this year we’ve been in a bubble,” UH senior forward Justin Gor
ham said. “Whether it’s a home game or away games, coach (Kelvin Sampson) just preaches to keep your circle close. Don’t be going out. Don’t be hanging out with a lot of people. It won’t be different. The world has been dealing with this for a year.”
A few hours after winning the American Athletic Conference tournament championship and receiving a No. 2 NCAA seed, the Cougars arrived early Monday morning at the team hotel in downtown Indianapolis. The 34 Tier 1 individuals who are part of the travel party — players, coaches, trainers, support staff — were tested upon arrival. They are required to quarantine for two days and have two consecutive negative tests.
Daily PCR tests will be administered to each team until departure from the tournament.
Each team has its own hotel floor. Each player has his own room. Two negative tests are required before anyone can begin practice. Meeting rooms and dining areas have been set up to maintain social distancing.
The tournament teams are staying at five hotels connected by skywalks to the Indiana Convention Center, allowing participants to move around without leaving the so-called bubble. Only Tier 1 participants can enter hotels.
“If the teams continue to do the great work that they’ve done just to get to the tournament, we will have a very safe, very healthy 67-game tournament and will crown a champion,” said Mitch Barnhart, chair of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball selection committee.
All Tier 1 participants must wear a “SafeTag,” a small tile-shaped device that collects data to assist with contact tracing in the event a participant comes in proximity with someone who tests positive. The device must be worn during all practices and games but is not required when players are in rooms, eating meals or studying, said Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president for basketball.
To reduce travel, the NCAA Tournament — known for packed venues and regional sites from coast to coast — will be played at four locations in Indianapolis (Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indiana Farmers Coliseum and Lucas Oil Stadium), along with Mackey Arena (West Lafayette, Ind.) and Assembly Hall (Bloomington, Ind.).
The NCAA has already run into problems, with Virginia (ACC), Kansas (Big 12) and North Carolina A&T (Mid-Eastern Athletic) forced to withdraw from conference tournaments due to COVID-19 issues. Virginia, the 2019 champion, and Kansas were in the Tournament field announced Sunday. Both schools remain hopeful they can play.
At the AAC tournament, Sampson expressed some concern about the potential for a positive test to derail a team’s postseason run.
As long as a team has five healthy players, it will be allowed to keep competing. Teams have until 5 p.m. Tuesday, when the men’s bracket locks in, to notify the NCAA if they are unable to play. At that time, four teams (Louisville, Colorado State, St. Louis and Mississippi) will be on stand-by as replacements.
After 5 p.m. Tuesday, if a team does not have enough eligible players, its game will be ruled a no-contest, and the opponent will advance to the next round, the NCAA said.
“We decided if they had five players eligible and healthy (they could play),” Gavitt said on a recent conference call. “We wrestled with contingencies and thought it was fairest for a team that earned its way, that even if it was compromised, they should have the opportunity to play rather than be replaced.”
Houston went through a COVID-19 outbreak that resulted in a 14day pause in December. Sampson disclosed that all 15 players on the roster had contracted the virus at some point last summer. UH has encountered no problems since.
After an AAC tournament game this past weekend, Sampson said he received text messages from friends who are former coaches questioning why conference tournaments were still being played. Sampson has been a supporter of mask wearing and other safety measures during the pandemic and recently received his second dose of the vaccine.
“That’s why you should just go to Indianapolis now. Why put it in jeopardy?” Sampson, whose Cougars were a lock for the NCAA Tournament for months, said he was told. “It makes a lot of sense. But I don’t think we can just live our life in fear. We have to live our life.”
That means getting used to some things.
“A Q-tip going up your nose … it’s become routine,” Gorham said. “We’ve tested the past seven days straight, so we are used to it now.”