Playing is madness with virus raging
Why are we playing college basketball right now? The college football season is limping to an uncertain conclusion, with COVID-19 emerging as the clear winner in locker rooms around the nation. The pandemic is raging across the country, killing thousands of Americans and filling hospitals to capacity.
And our colleges and universities, the places where people go to learn, are playing men’s and women’s basketball?
What is wrong with them? What is wrong with us? There’s one fellow in particular who would like to know what’s going on. On Tuesday, he said this: “I don’t think it feels right to anybody. I mean, everyone is concerned.”
This man doesn’t hate basketball. He’s not known as a coward, nor is he someone who is afraid to leave his house, which are some of the taunts that will be hurled by ridiculous sports fans at him or anyone else showing the least bit of caution about unpaid 18-22year-olds playing an indoor sport in the middle of a pandemic.
The man also said this: “I would just like for the safety, the mental and physical health of players and staff, to assess where we’re at.”
And this: “You have 2,000 deaths a day. You have 200,000 cases. People are saying the next six weeks are going to be the worst. To me, it’s already pretty bad. On the other side of it, there are these vaccines that are coming out. 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? And see just what would be best?”
That is the voice of Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.
And because of the fraught times we’re in, he made a point of saying his words have nothing to do with Duke’s 83-68 loss to Illinois Tuesday night.
“I know somebody will take what I’m saying tonight and make it like I’m making excuses. I don’t make excuses.”
Krzyzewski is not alone in his concern about continuing to play a sport during these incredibly trying times.
One of his former players and assistants, Pittsburgh men’s coach Jeff Capel, was asked Monday at his news conference if the season should have been delayed until sometime in January.
“If you look at the numbers, yes,” he said. “It’s interesting to me, if you look at the numbers back in March when the season was canceled, the numbers are worse right now than they were back in March. I don’t know who the leadership is, but maybe they would think about a little bit of a pause just so kids can be with their families for Christmas, coaches can be with their families. But most importantly, what’s going on in our country right now as far as these numbers is staggering.”
Nearly a month ago, Iona men’s coach Rick Pitino tweeted, “Save the Season. Move the start back. Play league schedule and have May Madness. Spiking and protocols make it impossible to play right now.”
That’s three well-known coaches, all of them calling for a delay in the season, or at least a serious look at pausing for a month or so.
This is different from what we saw with college football, where so many tough-guy coaches thought they could pummel the coronavirus, when in fact it has been the other way around.
So why aren’t we listening to them and doing something about it?
“It’s chaos,” ESPN analyst Dick Vitale said Wednesday afternoon in a phone interview. “We need a czar for college basketball. We need it badly. We need it in recruiting. We need it in situations like this. Right now, there’s no uniformity. People don’t realize the mental frustration for the players, the coaches, everyone. It’s just chaos, but I want to make it clear that what we’re dealing with in basketball has absolutely no comparison to those suffering from COVID, to the people on ventilators, to the people dying.”
The solution is simple. Stop the season.
Stop the games, men’s and women’s, right now.
There’s no shame in this.
It’s the smart thing to do. Every college and pro league in every sport has had to adjust their plans, not only for 2020, but also for 2021.
And while the college basketball season officially began in late November, 33 men’s teams still have not played one game because of COVID-19 interruptions, so the season hasn’t even begun for them.
“Why can’t we move this season to March 1 and play the tournament in May?” Vitale said. “I think they should sit back and reevaluate everything because, with the pandemic, it’s just going to get worse.”
March Madness? May Madness? Right now, it’s just plain old madness.