Around this time of year, college basketball would be in full swing, but of course, this is 2020, and nothing is going as planned.
MAAC basketball intends to have a “20-game double round-robin conference schedule with five home series and five away series for each team,” which was approved with a 6-5 vote and should be released within the next week, MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor said on Wednesday.
“This is something you see out of a movie script normally, a pandemic hits the country and everything’s changed,” Ensor said. “So no, I wouldn’t have envisioned this, sitting around thinking about how seasons can fall apart.”
The scheduling plan states “a Friday/Saturday playing schedule at the same venue for both games, with 24 hours of spacing between the two contests.”
Ensor said the MAAC originally discussed a plan in the summer in which there would be a few days between games for testing purposes.
But this fall, Ensor said the conference started to see the impact that testing would have on the school’s budgets, along with the potential of players being exposed to the virus when housed on the road. Then the conference agreed on a plan where the men and women’s teams would play an opponent on Friday and then flip the home team on Sunday.
“We had that on the board for a better part of two weeks,” Ensor said. “As more teams have become grounded this season because of exposures, I think we have five teams in various stages of quarantine right now, the conference came around to a position where they said, maybe we play the same opponents back-to-back days at the same site with the same officials.”
That way travel is limited, and there’s exposure only to one team and one set of officials. Ensor said all athletes, officials and anyone traveling with the teams will be tested three times a week. It is up to the schools whether they will use antigen or PCR tests. Ensor said game officials will receive a PCR test.
Quinnipiac athletics and the MAAC will follow the NCAA recommended guidelines, which say a team should shut down all activities for 14 days if a member tests positive for COVID-19. For the MAAC, this recommendation would result in four postponements should a member of a team test positive with the current format of two games a weekend.
However, Ensor said if a member of a team tests positive, the precautions taken are based on each institution’s policy in relation to their local and state authorities, which are set to a 10-14 day quarantine.
“This season is very different,” said Nick Sczerbinski, Quinnipiac’s associate athletic director for athletic communications. “There are constant changes seemingly every day, so we’ve all had to adapt and adjust as we go.”
After Quinnipiac’s recent spike in COVID-19 cases, its men’s basketball program had to pause workouts. There were no positive cases among the team, so practices resumed this weekend. However, other MAAC teams such as Iona, Siena, Canisius, Rider, Marist and Niagara have had positive cases on their teams and had to pause basketball activities.
Although much of what lies ahead is unknown, Quinnipiac men’s basketball still has its sights set on the season. Former Quinnipiac men’s basketball guard Aaron Robinson has been in contact with current members of the team and said the team’s outlook remains the same.
“They are preparing for this season as if things will be business as usual, but understanding that things could change at any given instant,” Robinson said “They are hopeful that they can play as many games as possible, whatever that number may be so that they can have a chance to make the NCAA tournament.”
Robinson believes cancellations are inevitable. He also said playing a full season is unlikely.
“I think it is impossible to think that a team will play every game on their schedule,” Robinson said. “I don’t think there will be a single team in the country that plays 100% of their scheduled games this season.”
So, what would the NCAA Tournament look like after the NCAA canceled it last March? With the likelihood of cancellations and teams being shut down throughout the season, it would likely be difficult to build a 64-team field to compete in the annual tournament next March.
Ensor said the MAAC is planning to have its conference tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with no fans. The women’s teams will stay at the Hard Rock Hotel and the men will stay at the Tropicana. Each team will be isolated to a floor.
“It won’t be a true bubble because (teams) will be traveling back a forth between the arena and the hotels,” Ensor said. “But it will be a bubble environment — I guess is the term people are using. It will be relatively contained, but it’s certainly not a Disney-like bubble where they had the NBA basically locked up for the better part of a couple of months.
No matter what curveballs teams are thrown, Robinson believes that the NCAA tournament must happen in March.
“The goal is going to be to keep everyone safe and healthy while playing as many games as possible, whether that be 10, 20, or 30 games,” Robinson said. “But what I can tell you is that no matter what, the NCAA absolutely has to have a March Madness this year.”
-Additional reporting by Yanni Tragellis