The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus considerations already affecting practice plans, Pastner says
With the start of preseason practice Saturday, Georgia Tech’s basketball team didn’t have to wait long to realize that COVID- 19 will have a signifificant impact on the season. The Yellow Jackets’ plans were interrupted that very day.
Learning just before the start of that first practice that one of his players was under the weather, coach Josh Pastner changed course and made that day’s practice noncontact, as well as the next two practices.
While Pastner suspected that the player — whom he declined to identify— hadnot contracted the coronavirus, and a later test confifirmed as much, he wanted to take precautions against the possibility. The player was kept away from practice, although his room mate was allowed to continue. The Yellow Jackets went through all three workouts with no body- to- body contact, meaning no 5- on5, no jostling for rebounds, no dribbling against tight defensive pressure.
“We just didn’t want to take the chance,” Pastner said.
The consequences of practicing with a player who tests positive for COVID- 19 are considerable. Given that basketball is played indoors with a small group that is concentrated in the confines of a court, the NCAA guidance for the sport is that if any player or staffff member with regular, direct access to the team tests positive, “schools should consider” a 14- day quarantine for the entire team and personnel close to the team.
The practices’ noncontact format was a way to avoid the possibility of a quarantine. If the player — or his roommate — had tested positive, the Jackets would have been able to keep practicing because they wouldn’t have been considered at high risk of exposure. ( Pastner could have kept the roommate out of practice, too, and held standard practices, but he said that, with other players also out, it wouldn’t have been worth it.)
However, had Pastner risked conducting standard practices that included the unwell player — and had he then tested positive — there would have been no practice for the next two weeks.
“That’s where you are in today’s climate as a coach,” Pastner told the AJC. “You’ve got to be thinking about those things as you coach. You have to be extremely flexible and agile and be able to adjust on the fly.”
Pastner fifigures that this will be how the season will go, barring changes to the contact- tracing guidelines.
“People get colds, they’re going to get sore throats that have nothing to do with COVID, but until COVID’s ruled out, you’re not going to be able to practice ( in the usual way),” he said.
Pastner returned to contact workouts after the entire team tested negative.
Maxwell out with foot injury: Tech freshman guard Tristan Maxwell will be out of action into November because of a foot injury he suffered in August in a pickup game. Maxwell, named the North Carolina high school player of the year as a senior, required surgery to repair the injury.
“He hasn’t been able to participate in anything teamwise,” Pastner told the AJC. “When he’s fully healthy, we’ll get him back on the floor. It’s nothing serious, other than time.”
The Yellow Jackets began preseason practice Saturday. Pastner left ope nthe possibility that Maxwell could have to miss games, saying that his precise return date is to be determined. Because of COVID- 19, the official start date of the season has been pushed back to Nov. 25, from Nov. 10.