I don’t get the arguments in the thread right now. Yes, you going to work is potentially more dangerous for spreading the virus than this tournament. Or kids going to a bar to celebrate classes being cancelled may be more dangerous. But the B1G can’t force people not to go to bars, or force your work to let you work from home.
The B1G can, however, cancel this tournament if they feel like it would help contribute to stopping the spread. And I don’t see how you can think this wouldn’t help, avoiding putting all these teams and players in closer proximity with each other on the court, in locker rooms, etc. only to have them go to 14 different places afterwards to potentially spread the disease even more. Not to mention playing the conference tourney implies you want to play the NCAA tourney, where the same issues exist multiplied out to 68 teams.
The B1G’s job is to do what they think would best help stem the spread of the virus. If this is what it takes, good. This decision is independent of things they can’t control, like you going to work or a student going to bar. If they could stop those things, maybe they would, but they can only focus on what they can control.
You can say they made mistakes handling the situation up to this point, which is probably fair. But just because they had been making mistakes doesn’t mean they should continue to.
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The Presidents and Athletic Departments of these schools are literally responsible for their students/athletes well being. It is their job to make the decisions that protect them. Not Zavier Simpson’s.
Also they aren’t welcome to stay on campus in most situations, being asked to leave.
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The hope now should be that (provided we get serious about it in America) the NBA pushing back its schedule and the NCAA pushing back the recruiting schedule allows a window for the tournament to play out after the virus in contained. It’s unlikely. But a nonzero chance maybe. I imagine that’s what the NCAA is dealing with right now. Would even be kinda fun if they released a bracket.
Having a show would be weird, but releasing a bracket isn’t a bad idea. But it also may make sense to not release a bracket until its official that it’s gonna happen.
Yeah, I like this better
Also, will teams just spend the next 4 weeks scouting the opponents in the bracket without knowing whether they will play? Tournament would take a whole new feel if everyone had eons to scout the opponents.
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Would teams continue practicing if games were postponed a month+? Would end up being some sloppy basketball
Just got an E-mail from Ticketmaster, my ticket cost is being automatically returned to my charge card!!! So at least the Big Ten isn’t being cheap about it!!
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I guess my thought is that it’s an overreaction fueled by PR implications as opposed to actual effect on real life. If we feel that a fan-less tournament needs to be stopped to protect people, then all air travel needs to be halted, any sort of congregation in public spaces of any amount needs to be stopped, all restaurants and grocery stores closed, work from home for any workplace over the size of 100ish people needs to be immediately instated (and any work that can’t be done at home needs to be completely halted).
Technically those kind of draconian efforts are the most effective way to stop the virus spread… but also it’s not going to happen because that’s not realistic outside of an authoritarian regime like China, so the NCAA or the B10’s plans are less then a drop in the bucket.
All of those things are starting to happen… Don’t think it is fair to shame people who take them first…
In Ohio today, for example, they announced max of 100 people in public events, K12 schools closed for 3 weeks, no nursing home visits, etc.
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I guess I don’t think we’re ever going to get close to ramped up to the level of the stuff I’m saying. All the stuff you mentioned in Ohio, particularly canceling nursing home visits is way way way way way way way more important for safety than canceling these tournaments. And orders of levels below the likeliness of air travel getting halted or grocery stores getting closed.
Definitely easier to cancel the tournaments, because ultimately they’re not important, but I don’t think it changes the public safety in any way at all. Just insulates against possible bad PR.
Because this disease is HIGHLY contagious in the incubation phase. This is not an overreaction. There are infected people walking around doing their normal business infecting other people and they have no idea.
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Brief report upon returning from Indy: we were halfway in our walk to downtown Indy just to take it in at O’Reilys because fans were restricted to watch the game inside the fieldhouse at that stage. As we saw a flood of maize and blue walking the opposite way, we knew it was all over.
We had attended the Wednesday games and it was a fun rowdy affair flooded with Hoosiers, but because there about 10,000 fans in attendance there, we’ve been keeping our distance (not obsessively, but rationally), and will be hunkering down this weekend to be protective for ourselves and others. We are doing fine and show no symptoms, but it has only been three days since the games.
I don’t want to debate best course of action with anyone to approach the pandemic. I will say that I was angry and snarky and, frankly, in a lot of ways, selfish, about the tournament being cancelled and made it worse by making it known. I realize it’s a bad look.
That said, I hope everyone in the UMHoops’ community is and stays safe during this time… I’m taking a break from all of it (a mourning period so to speak) until signing day mid-April… Be well, all.
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Hospitals will set up child care for their employees. That’s an easy decision.