OT: COVID-19 Impacts During 2021-22 Season

[GMU79]

Jon Rothstein
@JonRothstein
·
33m

Wednesday's game between Northeastern and St. Bonaventure has been cancelled due to COVID issues within Northeastern's program, per release. Game will not be rescheduled.


Matt Norlander
@MattNorlander
·
36m

And here’s a big one. Kentucky-Louisville is off due to COVID issues in Louisville’s program. Multiple positives with the Cardinals. Kentucky says it’s working to get a replacement game in.

Maybe UK could come to Fairfax.

 

[Pablo]

Jeff Goodman

@GoodmanHoops
·
3h

The only players (for most part) that have been consistently tested this season in college basketball are those that are unvaccinated.

Quote Tweet

Jeff Goodman

@GoodmanHoops
· 3h

After talking to several coaches of teams on pauses, the most common scenario has been one or two players going to trainer and saying they don’t feel well. Then trainer tells them to get tested, comes back positive and then the entire team is tested.

 

[Pablo]

Maybe UK could come to Fairfax.

How about if George Mason plays at UK, with the opportunity to win a 3rd P5 road game this season?


Kentucky Men’s Basketball
@KentuckyMBB
·
56m

Our game vs. Louisville Wednesday has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 results within the UofL program. We are working to find a replacement game for either Wednesday or Thursday in Rupp Arena.

ukathletics.com
Kentucky Men’s Basketball Game vs. Louisville Postponed - University of Kentucky Athletics
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men's basketball team's game vs. Louisville scheduled for Wednesday in Rupp Arena has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 results within the UofL program. UK...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1472947823242973185

View: https://twitter.com/KentuckyMBB/status/1472947823242973185

 

[GMUgemini]

How about if George Mason plays at UK, with the opportunity to win a 3rd P5 road game this season?


Kentucky Men’s Basketball
@KentuckyMBB
·
56m

Our game vs. Louisville Wednesday has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 results within the UofL program. We are working to find a replacement game for either Wednesday or Thursday in Rupp Arena.

ukathletics.com
Kentucky Men’s Basketball Game vs. Louisville Postponed - University of Kentucky Athletics
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men's basketball team's game vs. Louisville scheduled for Wednesday in Rupp Arena has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 results within the UofL program. UK...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1472947823242973185

View: https://twitter.com/KentuckyMBB/status/1472947823242973185

Send that to the coaching staff, Pablo. Let’s get that game done.

 

[GMU79]

How about if George Mason plays at UK, with the opportunity to win a 3rd P5 road game this season?


Kentucky Men’s Basketball
@KentuckyMBB
·
56m

Our game vs. Louisville Wednesday has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 results within the UofL program. We are working to find a replacement game for either Wednesday or Thursday in Rupp Arena.

ukathletics.com
Kentucky Men’s Basketball Game vs. Louisville Postponed - University of Kentucky Athletics
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men's basketball team's game vs. Louisville scheduled for Wednesday in Rupp Arena has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 results within the UofL program. UK...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1472947823242973185

View: https://twitter.com/KentuckyMBB/status/1472947823242973185

Or that.

 

[Pablo]

Jon Rothstein

@JonRothstein
·
16m

Tuesday's game between SMU and Evansville has been cancelled due to COVID issues within Evansville's program, per release.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

Jeff Goodman
@GoodmanHoops
·
3h

The only players (for most part) that have been consistently tested this season in college basketball are those that are unvaccinated.

Quote Tweet

Jeff Goodman

@GoodmanHoops
· 3h

After talking to several coaches of teams on pauses, the most common scenario has been one or two players going to trainer and saying they don’t feel well. Then trainer tells them to get tested, comes back positive and then the entire team is tested.

Seems pretty short-sighted, given the investment most colleges have made in their programs and the resources available to cover the cost of more regular testing. I get that part of the motivation to get vaccinated was one would not have to be tested regularly, but with the highly infectious Omicron variant, is it too much to ask players to submit to a 10-15 second nasal swab before practice and games?

Training staffs spend a lot more time taping ankles and employing other measures to protect the athletes (who obviously buy-in to these protocols). Ins't swabbing consistent with this principle?

 

[GMUgemini]

It’s something everyone should have reassessed once the data from Delta came out. Shouldn’t have needed Omicron to pivot.

I’m guessing they aren’t using PCR tests unless the rapid test comes back positive. They take too long to get results back for it to be useful in a sports setting.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Calkins: COVID didn't cost Memphis the Tennessee game. A failure of leadership did.

The Memphis-Tennessee game was canceled because too many Tigers players were unvaccinated. That’s an indictment of Penny Hardaway’s leadership.

dailymemphian.com

“'When I talked to the guys earlier, they were all talking about being vaccinated and then I never visited it again.'

— Memphis coach Penny Hardaway

It was an abject failure of leadership.

It was an inexcusable dereliction of Hardaway’s duty as a leader of a college basketball team.

Saturday’s Memphis-Tennessee game wasn’t canceled because Tyler Harris and Landers Nolley II tested positive that morning. It was canceled because so many other Memphis players were unvaccinated.

Vaccinated players would have been allowed to go ahead and play against Tennessee. Unvaccinated players would have had to sit out.

Counting the two players who tested positive and the throng of players who remain unvaccinated, Memphis was left with just four who could suit up.

That’s why so many Memphis fans made a fruitless — and expensive — trip to Nashville. That’s why the Tigers will not get to play a game that could be critical to its season résumé.

Not because Memphis had an unlucky COVID outbreak.

Because Hardaway failed to do his job.

And no, a coach can’t 'force' his players to be vaccinated. But a coach can make it a priority. A coach can revisit the subject again and again. A coach can educate and persuade."

"Some of you doubtless will try and tell me that college athletes all sail through COVID anyway. Even though that is not always true. But fine, put aside the obvious health concerns. Hardaway knew the COVID protocols. How about protecting his players’ ambitions on the court?

This is a team that was sidelined by COVID issues last season. So it’s not like any of this was a surprise. But now the Tigers have lost a critical game toward establishing their NCAA Tournament bona fides. And they have nobody to blame but themselves.

It’s both infuriating and embarrassing. Especially at a place that just attained Carnegie R1 designation as a top tier research university.

Memphis is an institution that values and advances scientific knowledge. But it also is represented by a basketball coach who doesn’t seem to give a flip."

Rick Barnes throwing some subtle shade at Memphis & Hardaway.

View: https://youtu.be/Mnb_YQ6pNCc

 

[gmubrian]

More testing is somewhat of a double edged sword. The more you test the more you get positives (true and false). Given that vaccines are proving to not prevent infection in the long run, and the low impact it has to people of the players age, not sure if it protects them in any way to do more testing, especially how invasive it is. The way this is looking, most of us are going to get some form of it at some point, measures to try to fight that seem to be delaying the inevitable, at best.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

More testing is somewhat of a double edged sword. The more you test the more you get positives (true and false). Given that vaccines are proving to not prevent infection in the long run, and the low impact it has to people of the players age, not sure if it protects them in any way to do more testing, especially how invasive it is. The way this is looking, most of us are going to get some form of it at some point, measures to try to fight that seem to be delaying the inevitable, at best.

Vaccinated and unvaccinated people can both catch and spread COVID.
LeBron James and I can both play basketball.

Both statements are true.

 

[Pablo]

https://twitter.com/BillLandis25


Bill Landis
@BillLandis25
·
1h

Chris Holtmann also said he and John Calipari discussed rescheduling the Ohio State-Kentucky game. They talked about playing Wednesday in Lexington and returning the game next year in Columbus, but OSU doesn't have the numbers to play this week.



Bill Landis
@BillLandis25
·
1h

Chris Holtmann says on his radio show that Ohio State was prepared to go play Kentucky short-handed, but eventually didn't have enough available players. Said if Justice Sueing and Seth Towns were available, they likely would have had enough and tried to play.

 

[Pablo]

A10 Talk Retweeted




Michael Bergman

@MLBergman_
·
1h

BREAKING: UMass has cancelled their game Wednesday vs NJIT due to Covid-19 Protocols, per release. These positive tests are within NJIT's program and NOT UMass'.

 

[JimP]

Vaccinated and unvaccinated people can both catch and spread COVID.
LeBron James and I can both play basketball.

Both statements are true.

It's pretty simple. You have a much lower risk of getting covid if vaccinated. If you do get it, you have a much lower risk of getting very sick or dying. Granted, young athletes are a lot less likely to get very sick, but they can pass it to those who may get very sick. Why can't people grasp this?

Also, what's with all the whining about boosters? They are very easy to get and you're much better off with one than without.

Response meant for gmubrian...oops.

 

[Pablo]

https://www.cbs17.com/sports/dukes-coach-k-calls-for-change-to-covid-rules-to-avoid-forfeitures/

"In 72 hours, the Duke had three different opponents on the schedule for their final game of the non-conference slate – a brash reminder that the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing.

Their carousel of opponents was not the only reminder for Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and his team.

The mask that adorned his face for the first time this season served as one as did the absence of Nolan Smith.

Duke’s assistant coach was ruled out of Saturday’s game due to the school’s health and safety protocols.

With games being canceled left and right in every level of sports and COVID making its appearance on the homefront in Durham, Coach K is now calling for a change in protocol.

'Our sport is being impacted in an amazing fashion with the virus,' Krzyzewski said. 'I personally would like to see us go back like last year. We wanted to make sure everyone we played was tested. We don’t have that mandate now.'

Duke’s staff and players were tested twice before Saturday’s contest with Elon, Coach K said they will continue to be tested every day moving forward just to be sure.

The coaching staff has received their booster shots and per university protocol, the rest of the team will have theirs by January but those protocols aren’t conference-wide.

'Can we be sure that would happen everywhere?' Coach K asked. 'I would like to know if the other team was tested just before we played moving forward.'”

 

[Pablo]

Jon Rothstein

@JonRothstein
·
1m

Thursday's game between Rutgers and Central Connecticut has been postponed due to issues related to COVID within Rutgers' program, per release.




Jon Rothstein

@JonRothstein
·
27m

Wisconsin's game on Thursday against Morgan State has been cancelled due to issues related to COVID within Morgan State's program, per release.




Jon Rothstein

@JonRothstein
·
49m

Wednesday's game between Eastern Kentucky and Bryant has been cancelled due to issues related to COVID within Bryant's program, per release.

 

[Pablo]

Matt Norlander

@MattNorlander
·
22m

Men’s college basketball is up to 40 programs that have had to go on COVID pause this season, with 35 of those programs currently unable to play a game as of 3 p.m. ET.

 

[GMUgemini]

More testing is somewhat of a double edged sword. The more you test the more you get positives (true and false). Given that vaccines are proving to not prevent infection in the long run, and the low impact it has to people of the players age, not sure if it protects them in any way to do more testing, especially how invasive it is. The way this is looking, most of us are going to get some form of it at some point, measures to try to fight that seem to be delaying the inevitable, at best.

I get tested once a week. It’s really not that invasive (not even as bad as taking a strep culture). Also more data is never a bad thing. Knowing who has an active infection and who doesn’t allows you to control the spread.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

More testing is somewhat of a double edged sword. The more you test the more you get positives (true and false). Given that vaccines are proving to not prevent infection in the long run, and the low impact it has to people of the players age, not sure if it protects them in any way to do more testing, especially how invasive it is. The way this is looking, most of us are going to get some form of it at some point, measures to try to fight that seem to be delaying the inevitable, at best.

I'm specifically referring to the 15 min rapid tests. Takes 10-15 seconds to administer and are not painful nor an imposition to the players. While they are not as accurate as the PCR tests in detecting small amounts of virus, they are VERY effective (95% sensitivity) in detecting whether someone is infectious (i.e., has enough virus to transmit), and 100% effective at identifying people with high enough viral loads they become "super spreaders").

While I agree that covid will be with us from here on out, until it mutates into something no more dangerous than the common cold, I'm for mitigation efforts. There are simply too many in our communities who are not fully vaxxed, and therefore quite vulnerable.

But the point of my prior post was simply to express incredulity that these rapid tests are not being utilized as widely as they should. We're paying KE and staff about $1.5 million per year. @$10 per test it would only cost around $250 per day - or about $7,500 per month - to rapid test players. Over 5 months that adds up to less than $40K.

It seems to me it's either: A) implement such measures, or B) play greatly reduced schedules.

 

[Pablo]

Jon Rothstein

@JonRothstein
·
9m

Wednesday's game between Saint Louis and Drake in Las Vegas has been cancelled due to issues related to COVID-19, per release.





Jon Rothstein

@JonRothstein
·
1h

Tuesday's game between Buffalo and UC Irvine has been postponed due to issues related to COVID-19, per release.