For better or worse, college basketball is here. The NBA will start its season soon as well, and in a far different setting than it closed the prior season – with no bubble. Not only is this sure to be a bumpy ride, but it feels strange, and not just because I’m not covering the college game.
I have watched games during these first few days, and I have been fairly active on Twitter. You might think I’m not going anywhere, but rest assured, I’m out of the game save for the right opportunity. I can still sense that something is off, though, and those who are still in the game can undoubtedly feel it more than I can.
The obvious part is that it’s hard to keep track of what’s happening. It feels like every day, there’s another team having to pause activities, or a game or two postponed/canceled, with new matchups coming along the way. We’ve already seen tournament fields change at the last minute – and give VCU a lot of credit for going 2-1 in South Dakota in a tournament they were not going to be in until the 11th hour. This is bound to be the norm.
In the midst of all of this, I have to say that I don’t envy those still covering the game and having to keep up with all of this, as well as those in charge of events like Bubbleville who have to change up on the fly. It has to feel a bit like playing defense on the court, where you have to watch the ball and your man while being mindful of where you are on the floor, especially relative to the basket and oftentimes the three-point line. As I follow some Twitter feeds among those who cover the sport, this thought occurs to me often.
There is perhaps no better example of how we have to just roll with the punches than what happened on Saturday regarding Saint Joseph’s and Seton Hall. The two were set to play on Monday afternoon in a nationally televised game at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut, but less than three hours after the press release about the game went out, another release came out saying that the game was canceled. One minute it’s set to go, and seemingly if you blinked, the game was off.
All of this, as well as limitations for teams to practice and on how they prep, are bound to lead to some results that might be a bit surprising, along with others that will be less so but could go the other way. It’s not a shock that Virginia Tech knocked off a Villanova team playing their third game in four days (and give the Hokies credit for how they won this game, as it was hardly given to them), and also not all that surprising that a Richmond team with a lineup of seasoned veterans went to Rupp Arena and beat a talented but very green Kentucky team. Experience figures to be more of an equalizer this season, but don’t be surprised if by the end of the season that doesn’t end up being the case. As we have been reminded many times, there is often a divergence between theory and reality.
In all, it’s bound to be the case that from one game to the next, the results won’t add up to the casual fan. A team with a few quality wins might lose to a bad team the next time out, yet it won’t be a statement about the former team having an off night or their opponent playing the game of their lives. The conditions this season are anything but “normal,” and reminders of that are bound to be frequent.
From a media standpoint, it’s already clear that this will be a season like no other. A number of schools appear to be doing media credentials solely on a game-by-game basis, likely with more limited media space than usual although the lack of fans will open up more options for seating media and scouts. It is worth noting that many schools have gone to great lengths to be accommodating to larger media and scout contingents than they appear to be able to handle most of the time. Post-game press conferences will be quite different, while even the TV crew is spaces out more. I noticed in a few Bubbleville games at Mohegan Sun Arena that the ESPN announcers were seated at separate tables several feet apart, something we’re not used to seeing. Additionally, because of the economic hit this has caused, the media landscape has changed quite a bit to begin with.
Finally, the Ivy League will not have a season. That’s still hard to wrap my arms around, especially since I always enjoyed covering the league as a unique component of college basketball. There’s the obvious of the academics, but the Friday-Saturday league play was always a little different. This year, many conferences will have something like that in the interest of minimizing travel and exposure while getting a complete conference schedule in. There was something enjoyable about those games, first with being among a handful of games on tap on most Friday nights and on Saturday night often coming as my second game of a long day of college hoops. Plus it was league play, and at that time of the year conference races are a big story, especially in one-bid leagues.
At the end of some early games, I have also noticed teams not lining up to shake hands, which is completely understandable. It’s one more sign of how different this season is, and an unfortunate one, necessary though it is. At the same time, we should all be grateful for what we will have this season, a season like no other and one bound to be uneven all the way around, but a season nonetheless.