While there's plenty of uncertainty about what exactly athletic competition will look like this fall amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, University of Louisville men's basketball coach Chris Mack is convinced college hoops will be played in some form or fashion.
"I'd be lying if I (said) I wasn't concerned. But if I were a betting man _ and that's illegal in the NCAA's eyes, so I'm not _ I would tell you that we're going to have some type of season," Mack said during a media teleconference Thursday.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Dr. Anthony Fauci has expressed optimism that a vaccine for COVID-19 will be developed sometime in the near future. Mack speculated about how that could affect attendance at college basketball games this season.
"Dr. Fauci is talking about a vaccine being available in November or December or January, which leads me to believe we may not have fans at the beginning of the year," Mack said. "There's a lot of different scenarios that we're talking about as an ACC coaching staff in our weekly meetings trying to just generate as many contingency plans as we possibly can. So while a lot of talk and a lot of eyes are on the sport of college football, there are a lot of good people behind the scenes that are trying to figure out what men's basketball can look like ... I'm confident that we'll have some type of season."
This week, Mack and his coaching staff were allowed to meet with and instruct the Cardinals in person for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. Per NCAA rules, coaches can now spend up to eight hours per week with their teams.
Players were allowed to return to campus and begin voluntary workouts on June 1. The Cardinals' schedule hit a roadblock when two players tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, prompting a suspension of all team activities for two weeks.
Mack said both players, whose names the university declined to release, have fully recovered; one was asymptomatic and the other recovered from mild symptoms over the course of a weekend.
The two-week quarantine period ended Monday, and Mack said the team is now busy training for fall basketball. While circumstances have certainly put the Cardinals behind schedule when it comes to training for the season, Mack said it's all relative.
"If you're comparing it year-to-year we're way behind," Mack said. "But we get measured versus our counterparts. They're all in the same boat, unless they're doing some illegal things."
