Aggies back in quarantine
Positive COVID-19 result cancels more games and leaves coach, players frustrated
If cabin fever hasn’t gotten the best of the New Mexico State men’s basketball team, it can’t be too far off.
Forced to shut down the program three times because of COVID-19 outbreaks, the Aggies announced over the weekend their latest bout with the coronavirus pandemic will prevent the team from making its much-anticipated return to action this week against Western Athletic Conference rival Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
The pair were slated to open a twogame series Friday, which has been postponed indefinitely as NMSU sits out yet another quarantine.
The Aggies haven’t played since a Dec. 28 loss at Cal State Northridge, the team’s only game in the past seven weeks. It’s enough to bring out the frustration in Aggies coach Chris Jans.
On Monday he let his emotions do most of the talking.
“You wouldn’t be human if you couldn’t say, ‘Is this worth it?’ ” he told a collection of local media members during his weekly video call with the press. “All I know is, there’s got to be some good news at the end this journey. There’s got to be a pot of gold.”
Jans said the Aggies have gone about two weeks without a full practice. The team was cleared to return to full activity late last week when the news broke that another member of the team’s traveling party — who hasn’t been publicly identified — had tested positive for COVID-19.
As with the previous cases, the entire team went back into isolation and all workouts were immediately ceased. NMSU announced its games scheduled for this weekend against Texas-Rio Grande Valley had been indefinitely postponed.
“When it gets to that point it’s almost Groundhog Day around here,” Jans said.
He admitted the entire team knew it was going to be an uneven season when it came to practice and playing games. He also couldn’t have predicted what a mess the 2020-21 campaign has turned out to be, that the notion of shutting things down for good are beyond his pay grade.
“It’s not an option for me if I’m the one making the decision,” Jans said. “We’ve gone so far at this point and unfortunately — or fortunately depending on how you look at it — the finish line is in sight now. If you look at it from that perspective, you know, we’re certainly not down the homestretch; we’ve played three games.”
The WAC Tournament will be March 10-13 in Las Vegas, Nev. The Aggies left Las Cruces for their Phoenix bubble in mid-November, meaning they’ve been away from home for nearly eight weeks. They will stay on the road for about four months.
Jans said the feedback he’s gotten from his players is an ongoing commitment to the team and what remains of the season. That, he said, is a testament to their true character.
“We’ve talked about it, it’s questioning how much you really truly love this game,” Jans said. “I mean, it’s way bigger than that but I think that is a question that everyone has to answer at some point.”
Jans bristled at a question about why the Aggies keep having members of their traveling party testing positive for COVID-19.
“For days on end they can have it and spread it but we don’t know it’s being spread because we don’t know that person has it,” Jans said. “It’s a slippery slope and I think, in theory, first of all we need to throw the bubble word out the door. We’re not living in a bubble.”
Jans described the team’s lodging situation, that the Phoenix resort they’re staying in is open to the public and it has a golf course right next door. People are coming and going all the time. The team conducts all of its workouts in an empty ballroom.
“We’re living in a public hotel that is open for business,” Jans said. “There is a golf course next to my villa. There are other functions going on at this resort. They are a business, they’re trying to make money, I get it.”
He said he and his staff have taken painstaking measures to limit contact, suggesting they could control their surroundings much easier if they were allowed to stay at home and train in Las Cruces. Forced to move their operations out of state was not their choice, Jans said.
“If people are pointing fingers and raising eyebrows, come down here and live with us for a couple weeks, OK?” he said. “I’m very confident and proud of our team for how they’re handling this situation. I’m with them every day. I’ve got a pretty good idea of what it’s like.”
That’s the life people outside the team’s Tier 1 group don’t see. The fact that every day seems to blend into another with no real progress is what drives Jans nuts.
“The other thing people forget is lives are going on back home where they’re from and they’ve had bad stuff happen to them that I’m not going to get into details about. Really bad stuff. Tragedies. And they’re stuck here in this hotel, not even in their college hometown, and having to deal with these tragedies. So it’s been quite an ordeal.”