NCAA Tournament: Should it happen?



  • I think they will role on as long as no one test positive entering the games. Imagine how bad it would suck if you won final four tickets this season.



  • I am thinking no tournament this year. Everyone disappointed, but it reduces the chances of seeing Roy and Huggy and Leonard Hamilton die. Among 200,000 potential others.

    Commentators on ESPN were predicting NCAA will cancel before tomorrow’s games.



  • @mayjay Gallows humor, and very effective.



  • Hoiberg tested positive for flu. Good news but still sucks! Stay home



  • NCAA will get their wish: we will finish the year number 1 with an asterisk.



  • @Crimsonorblue22 Glad to hear only the flu but his health history makes it more serious.

    The film of him on the bench looked just like a guy who was coming to do a home inspection on my house. He waited a few mins to get out and said he just needed a few more. I asked if he wanted 911 and he said no. Sweating, gasping for breath… called 911 immediately anyway. They were there in 3 mins, and took him to the hospital. Seizures with 2 heart attacks on the drive there. Lived to tell about it.

    An allegory for our own time, perhaps? Sometimes people don’t recognize when their determination to bull ahead is just not enough to beat down a major health threat.



  • @bskeet Maybe if it is cancelled the NBA combine will be, too, and Doke will get a redshirt, and Dot will come back, and I will win the lottery, and …



  • @kjayhawks

    I don’t understand your chart. It doesn’t add up close to 100%.



  • @mayjay

    Talk about ultimate chip… these guys end up #1 and don’t get to prove it!



  • @Crimsonorblue22

    And Hanks and others… yet our country only has a little over 1000 cases. Gheez…



  • @drgnslayr it’s a death rate percentage per group not percentage of people who have it.



  • @kjayhawks

    Right. It shows each age group and it should add up to 100%.



  • @drgnslayr Only if 100% of the people die. The balance survived. It shows the mortality rate is high for the elderly and low for anyone else. That’s all.



  • @dylans

    Okay. It’s a % within each age group.



  • Gupta mentioned this morning maybe 1% of our population is now infected. That’s 3.5 million or so.

    Finally a more realistic number mentioned.

    If that is accurate or close to it, then we should quickly see a huge death count if it is as deadly as they projected.



  • Jay Williams and Charles Barkley want to cancel the NCAA tournament for health concerns for the players. That is dumb. The players will be fine, to slow the spread of the virus is the only reason to remove the crowd. The players fit the demographic that will be fine. If a player tests positive, measures should be taken to quarantine, assuming we’re still doing that in a week.

    The health of the players with maybe 20 people hitting the court 10 of whom are already exposed to one another anyway isn’t much exposure risk. I’m not overly social and see more people than that. How many people touch the door handle at the convince store I get gas at every morning? More than 10 I guarantee you that. The players are is less at risk than anyone using public transportation. How many people on the subway each day?



  • Jay Bilas says the tourney should be postponed or cancelled:

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2020/03/12/coronavirus-jay-bilas-says-ncaa-needs-postpone-tournament/5030048002/

    Expect this to happen today or tomorrow at the latest.

    Bye bye NC!



  • With the Big 12 tourney still in place… it is best we treat that like the Final Four because this will mark the end of our season.

    And a loss will raise criticism that we didn’t finish the season #1 in the nation!



  • @dylans The issue regarding playing the NCAA Tournament is the travel involved. Most teams playing in the NCAA Tournament have to fly commercial because they don’t have chartered planes due to the budgets of the school. You also have these players coming into contact with fans at the hotels.

    Using KU for example, KU does charter so the flights aren’t an issue, but there’s still interactions with fans in Omaha. Whoever KU’s 16 seed is will be a program that flies commercially. Let’s say that one of their players picks up the virus from another asymptomatic passenger and passes the virus to a KU player during the game. Fast forward a couple of weeks to the Final Four in Atlanta and Devon Dotson starts showing outward symptoms OF COVID-19 on Saturday mid afternoon of the semifinals game. Medical officials scramble to test Dotson and it comes back positive for COVID-19. Now KU can’t play their Final Four game because they are locked in quarantine in their hotel in Atlanta while everyone is being tested.

    Because of what happened in Oklahoma City last night involving the Utah Jazz, this escalates very quickly and if a player tests positive.

    What would’ve happened to the B10 Tournament today had Fred Hoiberg tested positive for COVID-19 last night? Would Indiana have been allowed to play today after that exposure last night?



  • @dylans Also keep in mind these players are still students that have classes with hundreds of other students on a college campus where the local clinic is not prepared to deal with mass exposures. These players are exposed to a lot more people on a regular basis than adults are because they are still students.



  • Logistically it’s pretty simple, but maybe I have a simple mind. Get on a bus and don’t get off until you’re there.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 said in NCAA Tournament: Should it happen?:

    @dylans Also keep in mind these players are still students that have classes with hundreds of other students on a college campus where the local clinic is not prepared to deal with mass exposures. These players are exposed to a lot more people on a regular basis than adults are because they are still students.

    I believe you corrected my wording on this yesterday, so you know there are no students on KU’s campus. How many more campuses will be the same in a week?

    Also less exposure than anyone who uses the subway - 1 million passengers a day.

    Either everyone should be forced to stay home and not work or these kids should be allowed to play the game they’ve worked their asses off for.

    Jay Williams wasn’t telecommuting. Tell the kids to stay home while going out himself. He didn’t miss his opportunity to get his face on tv, but the kids should? Nah. That’s not right.



  • I think these conference tournament games with no fans will be kind of a litmus test for the tournament either happening or not happening. If none of the players/staff etc get sick from now until Sunday, the NCAA might feel better proceeding with the current scenario of a tournament with no fans. If we have an incident like the NBA had with Rudy Gobert, I’m guessing the tournament will be cancelled or postponed.



  • @dylans 2 big flaws with you statement here.

    1. Campuses are not empty because many students cannot afford to travel home for spring break and are still on campus. Also, not every school has spring break the same week so not every campus is taking this step yet.

    2. The timeframe of being outwardly symptomatic is about 2 weeks from exposure. Players were still going to classes 7 days ago so it’s not out of the question that a basketball player, coach, trainer, manager, or someone else affiliated with the basketball team of an NCAA Tournament team currently has COVID-19 but is asymptomatic and won’t show outward signs until in the middle of the NCAA Tournament.



  • Again the tournament is in 5 days. Testing can be done in 24 hours or less. If the NCAA cared they could test the players. They don’t care about the players, but they do care about the pressure the media is putting on them to panic and cave while still going about their daily life - going to work etc. The players can be quarantined in McCarthy Hall -a regular death sentence - until cleared upon returning. No parade though.



  • @dylans The CDC tested 8 people yesterday so testing EVERY player would be a huge increase in the current testing going on right now.



  • @benshawks08 said in NCAA Tournament: Should it happen?:

    @dylans The CDC tested 8 people yesterday so testing EVERY player would be a huge increase in the current testing going on right now.

    Our government at work.



  • I ask anyone who thinks the kids should give up their dream, what have you giving up? Are you going to work? How is that any different? As a college student I was never around the elderly. As a middle aged man I talk to people in their 70s and 80s weekly. I can’t get sick, it would be disastrous. I will try to communicate thru email and the phone as much as they will allow, but it’s the wrong generation for that.



  • The WHO has said to release dogs out of quarantine, they don’t carry Coronavirus. WHO let the dogs out!?!



  • @dylans Do you deal in your job with agricultural diseases, or just crops? What happens in a situation where one cow dies of anthrax?



  • @drgnslayr basically where it says .4% of people in age group died that 99.6% of the people in the age group didn’t.



  • It’s not a matter of if it’s when is the tournament going to be called… I’d say at this point it’s less than a 5% chance it’s played.



  • A second Jazz player just announced to be positive.



  • @mayjay said in NCAA Tournament: Should it happen?:

    A second Jazz player just announced to be positive.

    Donovan Mitchell



  • So, millions are riding subways and elevated trains each day in major cities. The whole country is still working and going to school for the most part. But we are worried about 20k at a basketball game. Just doesn’t sound remotely logical to me.



  • @mayjay said in NCAA Tournament: Should it happen?:

    @dylans Do you deal in your job with agricultural diseases, or just crops? What happens in a situation where one cow dies of anthrax?

    Crops and the diseases that naturally populate the fields. I own cattle as well and my dad is part owner of a feedyard, so I’ve been around a few million cattle (literally). Anthrax is rare here, thankfully. There is a dead hauler that picks up the carcasses normally, but under a positive test result I’m not sure what they do. Isolate and incinerate? Burying only preserves the problem for later.

    https://www.beefresearch.ca/research-topic.cfm/anthrax-62



  • The AAC and Big-10 just canceled their tournaments



  • SEC tournament canceled



  • @kjayhawks not even 20k now. Less than 1000 with only 250 total spectators allowed in.

    I’m becoming more and more doubtful there will be a tournament.

    On here’s a scenario that may work. Delay the tournament 10-14 days. During that time any teams that want to play, and any essential staff, and the 125 fans from each team should be quarantined and monitored by medical staff. That weeds out the infected; should be plenty long for the incubation period. (And it gives Garrett time to heal 😉 )



  • There will be no tournament at this rate. All the conference tournaments have been canceled…



  • @kjayhawks said in NCAA Tournament: Should it happen?:

    So, millions are riding subways and elevated trains each day in major cities. The whole country is still working and going to school for the most part. But we are worried about 20k at a basketball game. Just doesn’t sound remotely logical to me.

    It’s not and that’s why Italy was essentially shut down.

    I’m a teacher on spring break right now. My district hasn’t made any announcement yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they sent an email out sometime before Monday that they are delaying the return of students as well to minimize risks.



  • @BeddieKU23 ACC just shut down…maybe. Clemson isn’t taking the court.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 they should. Schools foster disease. Kids are great at spreading colds and such. It’s as if they’re meant to supplant us.



  • @kjayhawks Bidet ??



  • Rick Barnes says the UT players were very worried about playing. ESPN reported their Asst AD for communications is very relieved: had a liver transplant in 2018 and is still on immuno-suppressing meds, and is one of those ancillary people who would be affected by any decision to play.

    Jazz players report Gobert was touching everyone in the locker room, and the news conf showed him picking up all the reporters’ mics (not sure when). What an ass.



  • Big 12 cancelled.



  • @dylans said in NCAA Tournament: Should it happen?:

    @Texas-Hawk-10 they should. Schools foster disease. Kids are great at spreading colds and such. It’s as if they’re meant to supplant us.

    And if my district says I have to be there, I’m still going to be there because I still have bills to pay. As much as I would disagree with that decision, I don’t have the PTO saved up to take an extended break until this outbreak settles down.



  • ACC just announced they are cancelling their tournament. 11:23 am. Announcement is sad to listen too. Big12 next… 😞



  • Wonder if they would try to move it back to like May if this stuff clears out?



  • Just named FSU the ACC champ and Leonard Hamilton coy


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