PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
BY JP Pelzman
The Big East held its first-ever virtual media day for men’s basketball Wednesday. Of course, that format won’t work for the actual games.
Once conference play begins with three games on Dec. 11, including Seton Hall hosting DePaul, the competing teams will have to be in the same arenas. Making sure teams are coronavirus-free will not be easy, and it will be even more difficult to maintain that throughout a long season.
Thus, while the usual optimism was on display when the head coaches and selected players of the Big East’s 11 schools--remember, Connecticut now is back in the mix--spoke to reporters Wednesday, an unmistakable sense of trepidation also pervaded the usually upbeat proceedings.
Consider that not only was Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski talking about how his team has currently paused its activities because of a positive COVID test, but Seton Hall still doesn’t know when its opening game will be after ESPN pulled out of staging numerous multi-team events earlier this week. The Pirates had been scheduled to play UCLA on Thanksgiving Eve and then either Kansas or Boise State the next day in the Wooden Legacy in Orlando, Fla.
“Scheduling is a (mess) right now,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said, “and anyone who says it’s not is lying.”
Because of the ongoing coronavirus problem, the NCAA is limiting teams to a cap of 27 regular-season games, including MTEs, down from the normal 31, or a maximum of 25 without them.
“I wish we wouldn’t tie in the 27 games to the MTEs,” said Willard, whose team was picked to finish fifth in the conference by the coaches. “It's making (scheduling) really difficult. I wish the NCAA would come it and say play 27 games any way you can get them. I wouldn’t use the word disaster (for scheduling) because that would be too light of a term.”
An even bigger scheduling problem down the road will be trying to make up games postponed when a player or someone considered essential team personnel tests positive, setting up a 14-day quarantine period for that program.
“We understand it’s a part of life right now,” Willard said. “There's really nothing you can do. It's a virus. You can’t hide from it. I think we’re all going to have to deal with it at some point, and as testing gets a little bit better, and I think as policies get a little bit better, we can use our backlog of testing to help maybe move forward and maybe make the disruption not 14 days, maybe only seven days and that would help the season dramatically.”
Commissioner Val Ackerman said it is the conference’s “fervent hope” that it can conduct a complete 20-game league season for all 11 teams.
She added, “We will do our level best to stage a season where disruptions are kept to a minimum and a robust number of Big East schools are in a position to compete for a national championship next spring.”
Ackerman said, “We’ve been advised by the doctors that the travel model can work,” rather than the bubble format.
Willard was asked if the 14-day quarantine period will make it too difficult to finish the season.
“It's probably going to be almost impossible,” he said. “If we’re going to test so much, why aren’t we using the tests to keep moving forward? I mean, we’re testing every two days so we’re going to know exactly when someone got it, why someone got it. You can isolate that person. We can test the next two days and know if he was able to spread it or if anyone else has it.”
“It seems like that’s a little too long,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said, “and it seems like you should be able to test your way out of it but I’m not a medical expert.”
The question then becomes, should college basketball, the Big East included, follow the model of the NBA, the NHL and the MLB post-season and go to the format of bubble venues?
“As we get toward February, I think a bubble could definitely be an option,” Willard admitted. “Eventually, you might have to get to that point.”
But, Willard cautioned, “It's tough on the players. Not enough people have talked about the mental health of our players.”
He noted that when the event that SHU was supposed to play in was scrubbed, he suddenly had to face a very disappointed group of Pirates.
Willard, now entering his 11th season in South Orange, recalled the mood of the players. “Why are we practicing, the same thing’s going to happen, the season is going to be canceled. I'm like, ‘guys, we’ve talked about this for three months, we just kind of have to go with the flow.’
“It's tough because mentally, these guys are all ready to play,” he added, “they’re all looking forward to the season, they’re excited to play. They want to play against someone besides themselves to be honest with you. … This game means the world to them. They love playing it. They love playing for this university.”
“There's no doubt the bubble is the answer,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said, “if you want to make sure you’re going to get all your games in. All the medical experts will agree to that.”
But Wright, whose team was picked to win the conference, quickly added, “our athletes are students. They’re not employees. … There's going to be more challenges this season than probably any season in the history of college basketball.”
Seton Hall’s players are ready to try to meet those challenges.
“We just want to play,” said power forward Sandro Mamukelashvili, who was named to the preseason All-Big East first team. “Whatever our coaches tell us to do, we’ll do it. We love playing basketball. We love being around each other. I don’t think anything will be a problem for us as long as we’re together, as long as we’re doing what we love (and) as long as we’re staying healthy and safe, then whatever they tell us, we’re going to do it.”
Harvard graduate transfer Bryce Aiken said, “The logistics of everything will be a bit different. A lot of things will be out of our control, but as basketball players we’ll come in and do our best to be prepared day in and day out.
“And when the games tip off,” he added, “I'm sure we’ll be ready. But everything else is very reliant in staying prepared. As basketball players, we love to play.”
Would a bubble be a safer option? “It's not up to us. That’s a decision for the higher-ups.”
Senior swingman Myles Cale said, “We don’t know the season is going to be, if the fans are going to be there, if we’re going to be going here or going there, so we’ve just got to stay focused and know it’s a different season. Just love the game and know your teammates are behind you doing the same thing that you’re doing.”
As for a bubble concept, Cale said, “If we have to do it, I would do it.”
Willard was asked how this difficult situation has affected him as a coach.
“Every time you take the test, you’re holding your breath and you’re waiting,” he said, referring not only to himself but to anyone connected with the team.
“I feel I have one of the best athletic trainers in college basketball in Tony Testa,” he added. “When we brought our guys back in July, one of our main things was to try to make this as normal as possible for them...with adding the protections that we can add to make sure our kids are safe. We don’t have team meetings anymore. Everything is spaced out on the court.”
But otherwise, he tries to make it business as usual.
“As far as the basketball side,” Willard said, “we’ve tried to treat it as normal as possible. Tony was very big on their mental health. … The biggest difference is the way I interact with them. I don’t get within six feet of them anymore. None of the coaches do. We have a buffer. I think that’s the biggest difference. We had a film session and I used the whole Walsh Gymnasium (for it).”
“We've tested our guys like crazy,” said Wojciechowski, whose program still is on hold. “We're talking about an outlier situation. … Our guys have been incredibly responsible. We have talked about being socially responsible and (doing) all the things that are recommended to prevent the spread of COVID and our guys have done that at an incredibly high level.
“That’s why the COVID-positive test was confusing, to be quite frank with you,” he added. “Because I'm not sure our guys could be doing anything more than they’re already doing.”
“I think we have to figure out a way to do it,” Willard said of the season. “I think there’s ways to do it safely. We just have to be smart about it.”
Or else there could be two consecutive years without an NCAA Tournament. And that is something nobody who cares about college basketball wants to contemplate.
Last edited:
