I got lazy about a week ago. There’s a sense of invincibility when you get the first shot of the vaccine. After a year that felt longer than a visit from your in-laws, I went places. I saw my Mom for the first time in a year. I had brunch and lunch with friends. Visits to the grocery store didn’t feel like torture. I still masked up. I washed my hands and used hand sanitizer. Did I get within six feet of some people? Absolutely. I even (gasp) hugged people for the first time since last March. After all, it’s finally over. Right?
(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)
Flash forward to the ACC Tournament. After a somewhat surprising run of two wins, the Duke Blue Devils withdrew from the conference tournament. This truly didn’t surprise me. You knew *some* team would test positive. I thought it would come from an obscure school in the WAC, but it came from the bluest of blue bloods in a season where they stunk. This ends Duke’s season and everyone gets healthy. The end.
The bottom fell out on Friday morning. Both Kansas and Virginia lost in a walkover in their conference tournament semifinal matchup. Both of those teams could have won the conference championship. Both should go far in the NCAA Tournament. Both enter the national tournament with more questions than an episode of WandaVision. The first question: will they even play? The second question: why are we even playing?
Let’s take the second question because we won’t know the answer to the first for a while. The NCAA will do anything and everything to play this tournament because of money. They lost a lot of it last year and will claim they can’t afford to lose it this season – and they are right. Think about how many jobs these young kids generate. It trickles down from a coaching staff to administrations to other NCAA sports that don’t produce revenue (everything but football for the most part) to journalists to sports information directors to dining services to building maintenance and everything in between.
We love these games. We just shouldn’t play them right now. It’s not a political statement. We’re completely numb to more than 500,000 people dead at the hands of the Coronavirus. We’ve see a scoreboard that only ticks up daily on CNN. Roll your eyes at me. Call me a snowflake. I don’t care.
It’s nearly impossible for any rights holder of college basketball to do its job well right now. ESPN needs to report on its “Sportscenter” show that Covid cases led to the fate of many programs this week. Then they turn right around and actually run a promo for the game that’s coming up next. Their job is to get eyeballs on the product they bought. It just rings so hallow right now. There’s just no guidance from previous pandemics on what to do right now. It’s the most difficult season for any college coach and they are lying if they don’t agree with that. And we still have a month to go.
The NCAA set the Covid guidelines for the national tournament with a very interesting 48-hour window. From 6:00 PM on Sunday evening until 6:00 PM on Tuesday evening, a team loses its place in the tournament if they cannot field five players. The selection committee will put together a ranked list that slides in to take the place of the team that needs to withdrawal. In theory, Colorado State could become a 1-seed if Gonzaga cannot make that deadline. They aren’t re-working the bracket. It goes against any measure of logic for a money grab to get these three weeks of games to a final score.
Don’t get me wrong. I want to see these games as much as you do. I google “One Shining Moment” in December. I watch all of the basketball “30 for 30” documentaries. I used to vote for six seasons in the Associated Press top 25 poll. I even stay at a hotel during championship week to watch nonstop basketball. I love this sport.
The situation just sucks. Everyone wants to return to normal, but we still have announcers calling the games from home. Some conferences allow fans. Some don’t. The current plan calls for 25% of the building full at the venues in Indiana for the national tournament. That’s subject to change, along with everything in the last 13 months.
Georgia Tech Head Coach Josh Pastner asked the rhetorical question, “Can you get lucky enough not to get it?” We’re basing a national championship on the same level as a table game in a casino? Oh boy. An outbreak eliminates a team from competition. It sounds like the latest disaster movie that you force your significant other to see at the theater. Remember those?
It’s a remarkably tough call to make and will receive criticism regardless of the outcome. Once the tournament begins, a team losses if it cannot make the tip time safely. Stop and think. People are still dying from this. We aren’t 100% sure of how to stop the spread. We have guidelines, but it’s still new to doctors. The only uncertainty I want in March is the 5-12 matchup.
Build a bracket and play in May. That’s my take. We aren’t finished with the most dangerous opponent we’ve seen in our lifetime.
A veteran in television production here in Baltimore, Chris Dachille brings his 15 year experience of watching sports for a living to BSL. Dachille voted in the Associated Press Top 25 for six seasons. He enjoys all sports and hopes that pitchers continue to hit in the National League.