[Sports] Coach K Concerned About "Plowing Through" College

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Coach K concerned about "plowing through" college basketball season amid worst of pandemic

WRALSPORTSFAN.COM | 3 MONTHS AGO | 4 MINUTES, 21 SECONDS READ

College basketball began its season amidst the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has been reflected in the chaotic start to the season.

Some coaches even before the season began, like Rick Pitino (now at Iona), have urged the powers that be in college basketball to delay the start, especially with a vaccine starting to be rolled out nationwide.

Former Duke assistant Jeff Capel, now head coach at Pitt, expressed his unease at playing in conditions where multiple programs have already had to put their basketball activities on pause due to COVID-19.

After No. 10 Duke's loss to No. 6 Illinois in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge on Tuesday, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked about Capel's unease and he agrees that it "doesn't feel right" to be playing right now.

"I don't think it feels right to anybody. I mean, everyone is concerned," Krzyzewski said.

Krzyzewski has long advocated for there to be a singular head of college basketball, somewhat like a commissioner, to make important decisions for the good of the game.

The NCAA leads college basketball, but it is a collection of individual institutions and decisions are generally made via committee.

"We made an assessment, or - I'm not sure who leads college basketball. It's done by committee. You have an oversight committee; you have this committee. Anything that's led by committee is not agile in handling a situation," Krzyzewski said. "So we made an assessment, and there was a consensus It wasn't like well-planned that we were going to start November 25. That was made without knowing if there was going to be, where the vaccine was, how many cases. Basically, it was more of a mentality of get as many games in as possible."

Krzyzewski said that perhaps the decision to play on needs to be reassessed.

"In our country today, you have 2,000 deaths a day. You have 200,000 cases, a million and a half last week. You have people saying that the next six weeks are going to be the worst. To me, it's already pretty bad. On the other side of it, there are these vaccines that are coming out where people say that by the end of the month, 20 million vaccine shots will be given, especially to our healthcare (workers), to the people who need it and by the end of January or February, another 100 million. Well, should we not reassess that, and just see what would be best?"

Krzyzewski acknowledged that people will point to Duke's 2-2 record and their multiple home non-conference losses as a reason for his comments. Duke had not lost multiple home non-conference games since the 1982-83 season.

But he also expressed concern that it's not safe for his players to go home for Christmas for risk of exposure, and he is worried about their mental health as well as physical.

"Look, I just got my butt beat by a lot, so anything I say, someone can say, 'Well, he's saying that because he got his butt beat.' Do I think things should be done a little bit differently? Yeah. Kids aren't going to be able to go home for Christmas, probably a time where they should, for mental health. We're just plowing through this," Krzyzewski said.

Multiple ACC programs are on pause at the moment. No. 18 Virginia had to postpone its game Wednesday against No. 4 Michigan State. NC State is on an indefinite pause due to COVID-19 positive cases within its traveling party last week and won't face Michigan on Wednesday. No. 25 Louisville has had to pause its activities as well; they're scheduled to host NC State on December 16 and there's no certainty that that will happen.

Wake Forest is also on pause and has been since November 30. It has postponed games as late on the calendar as December 21.

Krzyzewski was texting with first-year Wake head coach Steve Forbes and got a sense of the impact it has had on Forbes' team and even his own family.

"I was texting with Steve Forbes last night - his own son got it, five players got it. Really, even we should get updates as to how many programs are on pause a week, how many cases there were, what's going on instead of just plowing through," Krzyzewski said. "But look, I know somebody will take what I'm saying tonight and make it like I'm making excuses. I don't make excuses. We need to get a lot better. But for the good of the game and the good of the safety and the mental and physical health of our players and staff or whatever, we need to constantly look at this thing. I think that's a smart thing to do.

"Whatever happens as a result of looking at it, understand that there are vaccines coming. I know the NCAA is worried about the end game - they're not as worried about the game we're playing right now. And who is it that you talk to? Like you're asking me, but shouldn't - do you know who to call to ask about that? We're smiling and we're laughing, but that's sad, right? I think that's sad, that that's the way it is.

"Again, Illinois killed us. We're not that good. God bless everyone." CATEGORY: SPORTS TAGS: INDIA CHICAGO STEVE FORBES DUKE UNIVERSITY MIKE KRZYZEWSKI ERIC CLAPTON THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ONTARIO PITTSBURGH MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY WAKE FOREST

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