By Harry Minium
Texans are free to enter restaurants, stores and shops without facemasks after officials recently relaxed COVID 19 restrictions in the Lone Star State.
But fans won't be entering the Ford Center at the Star in the Dallas suburb of Frisco without face masks. Moreover, social distancing will be enforced when the Conference USA tournament kicks off Tuesday with three preliminary-round games.
C-USA officials determined that all previous safety protocols will be enforced, and that the teams will be isolated in a "bubble" and game attendance limited, in spite of the changes made by Texas state officials.
That's a smart move. It may seem like eons ago but back in the fall, after a football season fraught with cancellations, many wondered if college basketball would make it into the New Year, much less to tournament time. This is championship week, as ESPN calls it, and the NCAA tournament begins next week. It's a bit of a miracle, and a tribute to the many thousands of players and coaches around the country who obeyed the rules, that we're so close to the Big Dance.
Clearly,. the smart move is to continue to do the things that got college basketball to this point.
Old Dominion men's basketball coach Jeff Jones praised conference officials for that decision and said, even though the pandemic is subsiding as more people get the vaccine, it's too early to relax.
Jones also made that clear to his players when they arrived in Norfolk Sunday after a two-game series at Western Kentucky.
"The last thing I told our players was that we've gotten this far, and we can't let our guard down," he said during a noon press conference on Monday.
"Everybody has sacrificed so much to get to this point. It would be such an absolute shame if something happened because someone let their guard down.
"Not to get on a soap box, but I think it's silly for politicians or whomever to think because things are going good that all of a sudden, we don't have to worry about COVID."
As if to put an exclamation point on Jones' comment, Conference USA announced late Monday Florida International's men's basketball team won't be coming to Frisco, Texas, because of a positive test within the FIU program.
FIU was supposed to meet Middle Tennessee State on Tuesday, with the winner to advance to meet North Texas in Wednesday's first round.
Instead, Middle Tennessee advances to meet North Texas on Wednesday and the winner will face ODU Thursday at 10 p.m. in the tournament quarterfinals.
The ODU women's basketball team, which is coming off a two-game sweep of Western Kentucky, meets the Hilltoppers again Tuesday at 5 p.m. in a preliminary round game. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Jones and the Monarchs depart Tuesday for Texas and, with the exception of the flight from Norfolk to Dallas, are determined to remain in a bubble. Players, coaches and staff have avoided interaction with the public since the fall.
If this makes that point any clearer, I haven't seen Jones or any member of his staff in person since last March, when the pandemic shut athletics down. The only player I've seen was Xavier Green when he was in the Jim Jarrett Athletic Administration Building to get a COVID test.
I've done all of my interviews with players and coaches via Zoom or telephone.
Jones has been a stickler for social distancing and mask wearing from the get-go.
"Now is the time for our country, but on a smaller and more focused level, for our team, to be even more vigilant," Jones said. "We don't want to be Holy Cross. We don't want to be Northern Iowa. And I feel so bad for those kids and those teams."
Northern Iowa and Holy Cross both had to drop out of their respective conference tournaments because of COVID issues.
Add FIU, which split games with ODU earlier this season, to that list.
"We're going to be essentially in a bubble in Frisco," Jones said. "It will be just us in the hotel. We won't be interacting with anyone else, family, friends, fans or anyone. Our traveling party is bare bones.
"We will go directly from the hotel to the arena. We won't be eating in restaurants. We'll avoid everybody we can possibly avoid and play the game on Thursday and hopefully we'll get a chance to play another game."
ODU played well at WKU this past weekend, splitting two games with the team widely believed to be the league's most talented.
Although most prognosticators seem to believe that WKU is the tournament favorite, Jones pointed to West Division champion Louisiana Tech (20-6) as a team to watch. Tech has won 12 of its last 14 games and split a pair of games at WKU earlier this season.
ODU and Louisiana Tech would meet in the semifinals Friday afternoon if they both win Thursday night.
"I know what the media has said, and I know Western Kentucky is an excellent team, but Louisiana Tech is pretty daggone good, too," he said.
"In spite of all of the talk, there's a lot of balance between the top six teams."
The NCAA's NET rankings, one tool the NCAA tournament committee will use to dole out the 68 tournament bids, has North Texas (13-9) ranked first among C-USA teams at No. 73.
Louisiana Tech (20-6) is No. 74, Marshall (16-6) No. 81, UAB (19-6) No. 84, WKU (18-6) No. 86 and ODU (15-7) No. 131.
In other words, if the NET rankings are to be believed, ODU would likely have to beat the league's two best teams to get to the finals.
Jones said the Monarchs played well at WKU and generally, are playing their best basketball of the season. But in order to win the C-USA tournament, he said they must play better still.
"We played well. We did a lot of good things," he said. "But offensively in the second half Saturday, we had some wasted possessions. We had some ill-advised shots or rushed shots. There were a
couple that might as well have been turnovers. They were bad shots.
"We need to be better in those situations.
"There's no one who can criticize our effort and everything we tried to do. We kids worked so hard and wanted to win so badly.
"But we have to be smarter offensively."
And stay healthy.
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: ODU, Conference USA Still Have Their Guard up to Protect Teams Against COVID
