NCAA can’t give in to fast break protocols

If Texas, with 29 million citizens, was a sovereign nation, it would be the 50th most populated in the world. So it was no small matter Tuesday when Gov. Greg Abbott announced the state would end its mask mandate and all restrictions on businesses in a bid to open the state 100 percent.

Me? I’d call it a 100 percent Abbott and Costello act, but who am I? Just a 65-year-old dude who enjoys old comedies and wants to keep on kicking after a potential visit to Texas for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

“Crazy, right?” Geno Auriemma, coach of the No. 1 UConn women’s team, texted Wednesday. “Especially with 64 teams coming to the state. But I guess the bubble just got a little tighter.”

It better.

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, whose city will host the tournament later this month, called Abbott’s decision ignorant

and mystifying.

“As far as the players go, we listen to the NBA, not the governor,” Popovich told reporters Tuesday night. “(He’s) acting like the pandemic is over … when all the science tells us the opposite.”

That means masks for coaches and game officials and players on the Spurs’ bench.

Maybe the NCAA can make its protocols work impeccably, too, or even buckle down further. Still, bringing about 2,176 people (64 teams times their 34-person official travel parties) to the women’s national tournament to San Antonio and the 16-team NIT men’s tournament to Dallas-Fort Worth over a three-week period scares me plenty.

The UConn athletic director is less scared.

“I can’t speak what the environment is in the state of Texas,” David Benedict said Wednesday. “We’re focused on things here in Connecticut. But what I’d tell you is my concern level is fairly low. The NCAA has put together a set of protocols and procedures that in essence eliminates the potential interactions of student-athletes, staff and people part of the official travel party with the general public. I don’t see that it’s going to impact the potential safety and welfare of our travel party.”

According to the NCAA guidelines, all Tier I personnel will need seven consecutive negative

COVID tests going in and will be tested daily during the tournament. They will stay in area hotels. They will eat prearranged meals in their rooms or physically distanced in rooms with assigned seating. They will wear masks outside the rooms, except during practices and in games. There may be limited interaction with Tier 2 (certain team and operational staff ) and Tier 3 (broadcast, transportation, catering, housekeeping) personnel in a controlled environment. There will be no interaction with family, friends, fans and media.

“As they (the protocols) are written it is as close to a bubble as you can get,” Benedict said.

Who gets bored and steps out for a food run? Who forgets a mask and hugs someone contagious? And then steps back in a bubble-like environment that isn’t entirely the bubble that sports leagues played in last year? We already understand the possibilities.

And with these protocols strictly enforced, imagine being the UConn women and essentially in lockdown from, oh, March 19 to April 5? That’ll be stress enough.

And what about the media, the families, fans, etc., who’ll travel to Texas for the tournament and will be outside the bubble-like environment? I don’t want this to come off the wrong way, but I consider my health and that of my colleagues Doug Bonjour and Mike Anthony equally important to that of Paige Bueckers, Christyn Williams and Olivia NelsonOdoda.

And what of the players’ families? What if they get COVID in San Antonio and pass it along to the players and other family members after the tournament?

Individual states will have to decide on possible travel restrictions with Texas. The NCAA, meanwhile, is going to have to be certain this is a Texas problem and won’t be theirs. Make no mistake, it is already a Texassized problem.

I already can hear the replies from those who support Abbott’s declaration.

“If you don’t like it, don’t go. Your choice.”

“You can still wear a mask. Nobody’s stopping you.”

Abbott pointed out that hospitalizations in the state are the lowest in four months, active cases are the lowest since November and half of less than a month ago. He didn’t mention that positivity rate is up 5 percent the past two weeks in Texas and generally plateaued in recent days nationally.

Still, that’s the point. We’re starting to win. Finally. We haven’t won. Not nearly. Gov. Abbott, remember the Patriots’ 28-3 Super Bowl comeback against the Falcons at NRG Stadium over in Houston? It ain’t over until the proverbial Fat Lady can throw away the ventilator and sing at the top of her lungs.

Texans have “mastered the daily habits to avoid getting COVID,” Abbott said in making his announcement. Those words remind me of the time I told a

Texan I was conceived in Texas but grew up in Rhode Island. He answered, “I was born in a hospital bigger than Rhode Island.” Texans can tell tall tales. No one has mastered COVID yet.

Abbott did say there are personal responsibilities and there should be vigilance to follow the standards. Yet, he also said improving numbers and rising vaccinations make mandatory restrictions unneeded.

Science says otherwise. Even after the second shot (mine is March 15), it takes about two weeks for the body to build full immunity. While the vaccine protects you, it still isn’t known yet if it prevents you from spreading the virus. Masks are still needed to help protect against new strains. Vaccine effectiveness remains unclear on that front.

And those with no mask and vaccine yet? Welcome to Texas.

Understandably small businesses need to reopen. We need people back to work. Abbott also has a gubernatorial race to win in 2022 and an eye on the White House in 2024. This was a splendid opportunity to cozy up to a far right that at times has been critical of him.

At this late date, politics cannot be allowed to snatch defeat from victory. There already have been 45,000 deaths in Texas and 516,000 nationally. More than ever, we need to be patient. Give it another two months before blowing the doors open.

“I am really worried about reports more states are rolling

back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from COVID-19,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control told reporters Monday. “(We’re risking losing) the hard-earned ground we have gained.”

Sure enough, Mississippi has joined Texas.

The women’s tournament, which runs from March 21 to April 4, will be played over five sites in the first two rounds: The Alamodome, St. Mary’s University and UTSA in San Antonio, University of Texas in Austin and Texas State in San Marcos. Those games will allow in travel parties and up to six ticket for their guests.

The Sweet 16 through the final will be played at the 70,000-seat Alamodome and 17 percent capacity (about 10,000) fans will be allowed. According to the NCAA guidelines, fans must be physically distanced and masked. That could get interesting.

If a player is found to be COVID positive, she’d be out at least 10 days. If a team shuts down and can’t play, it would forfeit. There can be replacement teams until March 16. Once the tournament begins, no team-replacing and the bracket is set.

It already is a crazy tournament. Now, we have to wonder how dangerous it will be? And the 29 million Texans? God bless you.