SEASONS OF UNCERTAINTY
One ASU team back in play, another in quarantine
“Literally I wake up every day (saying), ‘don’t get COVID, don’t get COVID, don’t get COVID. In our circle all we do is test, play, eat and go home.”
Charli Turner Thorne
ASU women’s basketball coach
The two basketball gyms inside the Weatherup Center on the Arizona State campus this week told one story: the uncertainty that comes with playing sports in 2021. ● On the men’s half of the facility, coach Bobby Hurley’s team returned to practice after being forced to take a week off after one player and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19. ● The Sun Devil men are scheduled to play UCLA on Thursday night, their first game in 22 days and just their eighth all season. ● “I feel a great appreciation for the ability to be able to go to work,” Bobby Hurley said Wednesday, “to practice, to train these guys, to have a chance to compete with all the obstacles and the land mines that are out there.” ● On the women’s half of the facility, there was quiet on Wednesday, a result of those obstacles and land mines. ● There has been one positive test in the program, and coaches and players are quarantined until contact tracing and testing allow a return. Scheduled games at Washington and Washington State this week were postponed. ● Coach Charli Turner Thorne hopes everyone is cleared in time to resume practice early next week, but nothing about life in the pandemic is certain, is it? Certainly not practicing and playing basketball.
Pac-12 men’s hoops favorites ASU, UCLA set for showdown on Thursday night,
A season like no other
Turner Thorne is in her 24th season at ASU’s head coach and 27th overall as a head coach. Every one of them has been exhausting. That’s what comes with communicating with fifty to 100 people, coaching, recruiting, traveling and dealing with the dozen or so unexpected things that come up every day.
It once seemed impossible the work could be harder, the stress greater. Then came the pandemic.
“Literally I wake up every day (saying), ‘don’t get COVID, don’t get COVID, don’t get COVID,’” Turner Thorne said. “In our circle all we do is test, play, eat and go home.”
Missing games is not unique to ASU, of course. By my count, there were 33 men’s games last Saturday that were either postponed or canceled. A handful of programs, including the Duke women’s team and the Ivy League, have decided not to play. Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski went into quarantine this week after his wife tested positive.
Even when games are played, they don’t all proceed smoothly. The ASU women's game against California last Friday was delayed 31⁄ hours because of
2 a COVID protocol issue in the Cal program.
That’s the short version. Turner Thorne narrates the longer one.
“So we hadn’t played for two weeks, right? We’re supposed to play at 3 o’clock and we got to be there at 7:30ish or so to get them (players) tested. Well, a Cal staff person, the antigen test doesn’t come back right, so game’s canceled.
“Wait, hold on. Maybe it’s not. OK, yep, their contract trace says it is. OK, wait, maybe we can get a PCR (test).
“So, she goes to Tucson, gets a PCR. Everybody works tirelessly, I mean tirelessly. Coaches, administrators, doctors. Get a negative test so the game is 3 1⁄ hours delayed, but we play it. But
2 that’s just exhausting. It was going to be hard anyway. We hadn’t played for two weeks, we were short-handed. We’ve got freshmen out there and now we’re delayed three hours. Are we going to play or are we not going to play?”
In a Zoom call on Wednesday, Hurley seemed far less antsy than he was a week ago. Back then, the Sun Devils hadn’t been able to practice in days, and the cancellation of a trip to Washington and Washington State loomed.
Hurley had reason to be anxious. Coaches live for practices. And a positive test on the trip would have meant the program pausing for 10 days. And finding a way for home for those who tested positive or were in close contact.
The ASU men’s program had been there, done that in December when a player and several staff members had to stay at the hotel during a game at Cal.
For Hurley, Turner Thorne and everyone in their programs, this is to be their lives for the next two months.
The virus numbers in the nation, and in Maricopa County, are at record highs, so it’s naïve to think there won’t be further disruptions to this season before NCAA tournaments begin in mid-March.
And Hurley and Turner Thorne realize college basketball's place in the big picture. Hospitals and ICUs are near capacity. People are dying.
Hurley, Turner Thorne and the people in their programs are in good health, or returning to it. They are thankful.
“As much we love sports,” TurnerThorne said, “we just need to continue putting the health and safety of everybody first and foremost.”
“There are a lot of people that are in a lot worse shape than, than I am,” Hurley said, “so I'm trying to stay positive.”
The ASU men tip off vs. UCLA Thursday night. If they are looking for something to do while in quarantine, the ASU women can watch on ESPN.