UM basketball teams will travel by charter, and other changes they have made for COVID
College basketball in pandemic times will look and feel quite different, and the University of Miami men’s and women’s teams are making the necessary adjustments with season openers just over a week away.
The Hurricanes will travel to all road games on charter flights. Players who room together in Coral Gables will be required to sit together on team buses and room together in hotels. There will be no gathering in banquet rooms for pregame or postgame meals. Instead, players and coaches will get boxed meals.
Masks must be worn on all buses and planes, and no food will be served. Drinks are allowed, but only through a straw under masks. If friends or family visit on the road, it must be from a distance in the hotel lobby.
“We’re going to do everything the protocols ask for and do everything possible to keep our players, coaches and travel party safe,” said UM men’s coach Jim Larranaga, who added that his team has no positive COVID cases.
“My team has very receptive to everything we’ve asked them to do. If they didn’t, we’d have a number of guys who would have had COVID because cases are spiking everything. But we keep our fingers crossed.”
The Canes were scheduled to open the season Nov. 25 at home against Stetson, but that game was pushed back to Dec. 4 because of COVID cases in Stetson’s program. Their first game will be at home Nov. 29 against North Florida.
The lack of fans in ACC arenas will have a profound effect on the league with loss of revenue and the absence of the wildly-spirited crowds the conference has enjoyed for decades. No more blue-painted, finger waving Cameron Crazies at Duke. No more crowds of 30,000 cheering for Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.
In order to prepare for empty arenas, the Hurricanes will have an inter-squad scrimmage in uniform on Saturday and try to simulate what the games will feel like with socially-distanced bench seats and masks. It will be the team’s first time in the Watsco Center since August, as the arena has been used as oversized classrooms due to COVID-19.
“There will be an adjustment for the players. I do think it can impact the home-court advantage, but every player on both teams will be dealing with the same thing,” Larranaga said. “You have to be self-motivated. You can’t wait for the crowd to get you going. I’ll be very curious about the creativity we see around the league because the NBA in the bubble had fake fan faces and music and crowd noise. I’m hoping we’ll adapt to that and try to do some creative things.”
UM women’s coach Katie Meier joked that one of her many concerns is having her every word heard in empty arenas.
“It’s going to be very, very odd,” Meier said, smiling. “I’m a little worried about some of the things I say being heard now because I like to be a little snarky sometimes, a little sarcastic, and what I consider funny someone else might consider not so funny. My voice does travel.”
Meier met with her players and reminded them that their energy will have to come from within, pointing out body language she did not like from video of a recent scrimmage.
“We have got to play with joy, without feeling burdened,” Meier said. “When we have a chance to share our joy, people are going to want to see us being happy to be playing. It should be a relief, an escape.”
UM athletic director Blake James said “I think basketball brings significant challenges in that it’s a contact sport. I think the flexibility we saw this week with changes in the football schedule, I’m guessing we’ll have to make those same changes in basketball.”
Larranaga has had to deal with bumps and bruises the past few weeks, in addition to the loss of Sam Waardenburg for the season due to a knee injury.
Anthony Walker sprained a knee doing a 360-degree dunk in practice, has missed three weeks, but returned to practice this week and is expected to play in the scrimmage. Freshman Earl Timberlake sprained his ankle last weekend. Center Rodney Miller had an issue with allergies, and center Nysier Brooks missed practice Tuesday because he was sick.
Football update: Asked if there could be further reshuffling with the remaining three football games James said: “The stars would have to align to figure out how could put something together. I don’t think we’d do it on Georgia Tech weekend because that’s ACC Championship weekend. If we’re ready to go and Wake Forest or North Carolina are not, do I think the league would look at opponents for us to still play? I do. But I don’t think it’s very likely that would happen.”