Start the Clock: College Basketball
Now that football season is almost assuredly up in smoke, can/should we turn our attention to college basketball? With “Midnight Madness” / team workouts starting in November (likely pre-vaccine, possibly post-second-surge), how confident are we that there will be a college basketball season this school year?
This blows.
(Yes, user name checks out.)
August 10th, 2020 at 1:15 PM ^
It's far from a done deal.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:16 PM ^
I don't think there will be a college basketball season. Even if the current hot spots cool off, C-19 will spring up in other places. The containment infrastructure and public weariness will continue to contribute to alarming numbers for the foreseeable many months.
Perhaps a better coordinated and concentrated response might help?
August 10th, 2020 at 2:10 PM ^
There is no chance of anything getting substantially better in this country until, oh, I don't know, let's say January 20 of next year.
College basketball should start before that, so my feeling is that the best we can hope for is a truncated season a la what the pro leagues are doing right now.
August 10th, 2020 at 3:19 PM ^
"There is no chance of anything getting substantially better in this country until, oh, I don't know, let's say January 20 of next year."
At which point I am sure we will no longer hear a peep from the media about Covid-19.
August 10th, 2020 at 5:42 PM ^
If somebody would have shown 'leadership' instead of attacking antagonists, you wouldn't be hearing much about it, either.
August 10th, 2020 at 7:14 PM ^
Right because this whole thing is a scam designed to undermine dear leader. You should be embarrassed for being so fucking stupid.
August 10th, 2020 at 4:01 PM ^
Unfortunately there's an ecosystem now for people who believe the virus is a hoax, masks are totalitarian, and vaccines have chips in them to activate the 5G network military takeover of our brains.
I find it unlikely things will be better considering the number of people on this board that believe these things despite many of them attending a university as good as Michigan. Imagine all the idiots who went to Ohio State and MSU. They'll spread the virus and still complain that basketball is cancelled.
August 11th, 2020 at 12:19 AM ^
* Most mainstream media outlets (with the obvious exception of Fox News) are biased in favor of Democrats and will latch on to every story that makes Trump and Republicans look bad, even on trivial matters.
* Trump is an incompetent, corrupt lunatic who has badly mismanaged the COVID-19 crisis and is fundamentally unfit for the presidency.
You can hold both of these positions. They are not inconsistent. Believing in one does not require you to disagree with the other.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:16 PM ^
Only possible with a bubble
If you have athletes mixed with students, there will assuredly be outbreaks
Since a bubble isn't feasible, 0% chance of college sports until there's a vaccine
August 10th, 2020 at 1:20 PM ^
If the last few months have taught us nothing else: it's ridiculous to claim certainty about anything.
I would like to reiterate that there is no reason to believe that there will (or will not) be a vaccine. If it turns out that a vaccine is impossible, would you really say there's no chance that college sports will ever happen again?
Eventually, I hope that people will get tired of being scared, and we can move on with our lives.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:30 PM ^
If a vaccine never comes, then hopefully a mixture of social distancing and herd immunity from prior infection will get transmission levels low enough to have large gatherings again. Based on how this country has handled year one, I don't have much confidence that such a reality will be next fall without a vaccine.
As for fear, the only people I see scared are those highly susceptible to the virus and people who are afraid to put on a mask and follow rules because it think it makes them look weak and not a free thinker. I've nothing to fear personally because I practice safe daily activities with a mask and social distancing, but I am getting annoyed as fuck that my college years at UofM are being disrupted by a country too selfish to do anything that inconveniences them
August 10th, 2020 at 1:31 PM ^
I hope so too but the views expressed on this web site indicates no.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:47 PM ^
And if there is no effective vaccine, or the best vaccine is say 50 percent effective?
August 10th, 2020 at 1:19 PM ^
There isn't going to be a college basketball season
I'm taking up dog sled racing
August 10th, 2020 at 1:58 PM ^
I am getting into competitive jacking off.
I have been training many times a day.
It will be hard so I will need to have a good grasp.
The goal is too last, so I hope I don't blow it.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:20 PM ^
I don’t see how a season is possible since practice would start in October. Nothing will change until at least early March
August 10th, 2020 at 1:22 PM ^
No chance. We have agreed to the rules of the game being such that victory is unattainable within them.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:24 PM ^
It's not super likely but we've seen a model-ish work for basketball (the "bubble"), and it's a much smaller number of people you'd have to keep an eye on. That said, I'm not wholly optimistic that the leagues would be willing to make the changes necessary to make a season a reality.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:25 PM ^
I could see basketball happening only because there are much fewer players and isolating seems workable. Let's cross our fingers.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:57 PM ^
Also working in basketballs favor, is that AAU has been going on all summer and I have not seen any reports of any outbreaks due to these tournaments.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:27 PM ^
have a nice fall you liberal fruitcakes REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
August 10th, 2020 at 1:30 PM ^
user name checks out
August 10th, 2020 at 1:36 PM ^
This is the kind of posting that keeps me coming back here.
August 10th, 2020 at 2:15 PM ^
Except we are the only country that can’t figure it out ! Ignore it and it will go away !!!! How’s thats working out for you ....
August 10th, 2020 at 1:28 PM ^
The US as a country is on the verge of a total collapse according to my sources ("Hoax thread") because college football won't be played. If college basketball follows...the entire world will be in trouble.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:29 PM ^
Zero confidence because the same University Presidents and Lawyers will make the same decisions towards all sports this year. If we can't do conference only football in September because we can't even control our own conference, there won't be basketball in November either.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:32 PM ^
Some institutions have had no trouble keeping their players healthy and safe. Other institutions are MSU and Rutgers
August 10th, 2020 at 1:32 PM ^
What's going to change between now and then accept the arrival of flu season which will make this even worse? There is going to be no significant policy change from now through January and if there is some kind of rushed vaccine it won't be available until 2021. The biggest event there will be towards getting sports back will be November 3rd.
August 10th, 2020 at 2:22 PM ^
Only because the reporting on this will calm down significantly, it's not like our federal bureaucracy will magically become more competent. People not continually being scared shitless is probably the way forward, part of that will simply be feeling better about a Chief Executive who will at least give the appearance of trying to deal with this rather than just hoping it goes away.
August 10th, 2020 at 1:37 PM ^
Basketball is considerably more plausible. I do think (maybe more hope than anything) that we will see some form of college basketball. CONFERENCES (not the ncaa) should be able to figure out some form of "bubble light" where there is some segregation (like pods or zones) and the testing protocols should be much improved by the 4th quarter.
I said months ago that CFB was a pipe dream, but I do have at least a little hope for March Madness.
August 10th, 2020 at 2:00 PM ^
I'm reasonably optimistic. If conferences start putting together a comprehensive safety protocol now, allow players to opt out who don't want to take the risk, and allow sone feedback from players on whatever plan they come up with (All Big IFS, I know).
I personally think if everything happening now, had happened 2 months ago, football would have figured it out by now and we would have a shortened season.
August 10th, 2020 at 2:16 PM ^
The College Basketball season should start where it left off last year.
Big Ten Tournament here we come!
/s
August 10th, 2020 at 2:25 PM ^
America has really shown no ability to contain the virus broadly. While it seems the total new cases per day is dropping, I don't see much other reason for optimism other than hoping a vaccine shows up soon and people actually feel comfortable enough with it to take it en masse. Basketball will almost certainly be delayed at best and we're lying to ourselves if we don't admit that March Madness is in jeopardy again too
August 10th, 2020 at 2:32 PM ^
No, forget it! There will be no college basketball. No football in the spring.
August 10th, 2020 at 3:24 PM ^
Proceed with caution. I think you’re setting yourself up for massive disappointment if you’re starting a countdown clock. The changes to the big ten schedule would have the season start in late October. I don’t see things being massively different by then.
Normally I’m very much a pessimist. And I fully admit that. But in this case, I feel I’m being more of a realist.
August 10th, 2020 at 3:29 PM ^
We can kiss college basketball good-bye too. This country has already proven it doesn't (collectively) care enough to do what's best for the common good with reducing the risks of COVID. Too many people out there still worried about their supposed freedoms somehow being infringed upon by being asked to wear a mask.
Even if this wasn't an issue, there won't be a vaccine by November. Much less one that is mass produced for the general populace.
August 11th, 2020 at 9:43 AM ^
Wouldn't basketball itself be the country not doing what's best for the common good, then?