PHILADELPHIA — You ask a local college basketball coach about whether a specific player will be in his starting lineup.
"Minus a positive COVID test, yes," comes the answer.
Never mind getting the Division I basketball season to the finish line. Right now, most teams are hoping to get to the starting line.
Check Temple's website for a schedule. You won't see one. Less than a week before the season is supposed to begin, no official schedule. That's not a slam on Temple. That's the reality of dealing with COVID-19 right now. Temple is supposed to have a Nov. 25 opener at home against NJIT. Owls coach Aaron McKie was asked Thursday on a Zoom call about where that stands.
"Uh, not sure. I'm not sure," McKie said. "I don't want to give off any information, but it's been tough for us. We've only practiced really six times as a team in three weeks. So we've been in and out of COVID protocol, I want to say four times, dating back to the summer."
McKie said his program has had four cases this fall. "It's been start, stop ... start, stop for us."
Temple is supposed to go to Mohegan Sun for a couple of games right after that opener, be in a bubble of sorts. They'd have to leave Wednesday to start testing for a Saturday game.
Jay Wright also had a Thursday Zoom media call. Villanova is heading first for the Mohegan Sun bubble in Connecticut, with the season starting Wednesday against Boston College.
"We're leaving Monday for a Wednesday game, which we wouldn't normally do," Wright said. "We'd usually go up Tuesday night. But we have to test here Then we have to get up there in time to test Monday night. Then we have to quarantine in our rooms, and only eat meals in our rooms that night."
But the excitement level to start — higher than any season he's experienced, Wright said, because of all the obstacles, the absence of normalcy.
"I swear to you, I don't know," Wright said of the number of games he thinks is reasonable to expect to play this season. "We're hoping that our guys stay disciplined, and we pull through this, and we get all our games in."
Wright said he thinks the month of December is really important, to get early Big East games in by the end of the year.
"Getting to that number of 13 is an important goal," Wright said, referring to the minimum number of Division I games set to qualify for the 2021 NCAA tournament. "I think every program, when they get to 13, is going to breathe a sigh of relief."
Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman told the New York Post Thursday that the league is talking about adding some additional conference games before Dec. 11 if teams lose non-conference games because of COVID-19.
"We're planning that if some of our games get cancelled, we're communicating with other schools so that we have backups," Wright said.
Ackerman didn't rule out a Big East bubble still happening later in the season, although she added that's not the top option on the table.
This obviously isn't just dealing with hypotheticals. Delaware already announced it was forced to call off its first two games and pause practice due to positive COVID cases.
Feel bad for Delaware? Penn would take that. The Quakers already have had their whole season cancelled. McKie said he tries to tell his players that a whole lot of people in society have it worse right now.
Wright said he is in favor of having the NCAA Tournament in a quasi-bubble, with negotiations right now to have it in Indianapolis.
"I think they're thinking about no fans or possibly parents right now," Wright said. "But they're hoping, if things get better, being able to adjust and add. I really believe it's the only way you're going to be able to do that."
Wright figures that with only 15 full practices, the whole team ... they've had to keep things simple. He looks at college football — because he also likes college football, he said — to see what challenges they've faced.
"I'm a Penn State football fan, so I watch Penn State," Wright said, picking out a striking example of a team struggling on the field, now 0-4. "I watch Michigan. You can see there's just something different. You don't know what they're going through. ... I think every team is going through that. There are going to be hidden variables that nobody is going to be able to explain, and certain things you don't want to know about."
Wright said he felt guilty about injuries sustained early on after a forced quarantine period due to COVID-19 positives, that they'd tried to go as easy as possible.
"We planned this out and still had injuries," Wright said. "I felt terrible. ... There are going to be things like that all year with teams."
McKie said he tries to provide some balance, how when he looks at some of his players' faces, knowing some also have family issues they're worried about, "It's just a puzzled look. I say, 'Look guys, everything is going to be OK.' "
But how that translates into specifics such as a schedule, Temple's coach can't say. Days before his Owls' season is supposed to start, he doesn't know.
