One-of-kind tournament set to open

Keeping an eye on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament

At Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis on Wednesday, a couple of coaches running laps around the warning track passed different diversions scattered across the minor league ballpark.

In one section, a badminton net. In others, a soccer ball and a football.

No sign of a basketball. When the 1,500 or so players, coaches and staff members in town for the NCAA Tournament want to get a breath of fresh air and a glimpse of some green grass, this is their option. Their only option.

This is life at a basketball tournament being played in a pandemic. The unspoken message: If they came to Indianapolis hoping for fun and games, they aren’t in the right place — at least not until tip-off.

“I’m in a bed for, like, 15 hours a day,” Iowa swingman Connor McCaffery said in describing his new, austere routine in Indy.

It’s, quite simply, how things have to be over the next three weeks. Starting Thursday, in an attempt to get through 67 games uninterrupted, the NCAA has placed players, coaches and staff under a virtual lock and key. They don’t like calling it a bubble, but semantics aside, there’s no straying between the team hotels, the adjacent convention center for practice, meetings and 30-minute windows in the weight room, and Victory Field, home of the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians.

Normally, on the Wednesday before the start of the tournament, parking lots at arenas in host cities would be open, with music playing, hot dog vendors working and fans in face paint streaming in to take advantage of free admission to team shootarounds.

Certainly not much to see there in the way of real basketball, but the band plays, the cheerleaders cheer and everyone gets pumped for the next day’s action.

This year, bands, mascots and cheerleaders are staying at home, because teams are restricted to 34 members for their travel squads.