Michigan Basketball: Coaches and others optimistic about a season

As the 2020-21 Michigan basketball team practices in hopes of a season this winter, I tracked down any mention of a season from several sources, and people are generally optimistic.

Nearly a billion – with a b – dollars are exchanged during the NCAA tournament that is aptly nicknamed March Madness for the insanity occurring each year.

No one bats an eye when an 11 seed sneaks by a six seed or when a 12 topples a five. It’s those infrequent occasions when a two falls to a 15, or the one time a one went down in round one. It’s for those reasons ~900 million in ad revenue is generated.

And it’s for that reason, the NCAA, which opted out of holding the tournament earlier this year, will make sure the tournament will be played this time around. Or at least that’s why I believe they won’t pull the plug again.

The same goes for conferences missing out on their less than-but still profitable pre-March Madness bracket play. Like the one that was canceled as Michigan basketball players were warming up on the court. Millions of dollars thrown down the drain because of a pandemic raging across the nation.

There is evidence to suggest we won’t see any winter sports. Two Power Five conferences have already delayed their football season until COVID-19 can be contained, or the players can otherwise protect themselves from the virus.

But then again, there is a massive disparity between the two sports; Football teams generally travel with around 70 players from place to place, whereas basketball is limited to under 20. Even though hoops is played inside on a court, there are only five men pitted against five opponents, not 11 vs. 11.

With so many reasons why basketball should go ahead, it’s no surprise the coaches, administrators, and fans are clamoring for competition. However, some are a little more reserved in their comments than others.

“I don’t know that much has to change, certainly on our campus, and I messaged that to our student-athletes yesterday,” Illini athletic director Josh Whitman told the Illini Inquirer. “I did have a chance to sit down with our basketball teams, men’s and women’s, last night because they’re already here on campus and they are in training. To them, I think the message is just to stay the course. Continue to do what you’re doing.

“As I sit here today, I’m still optimistic that we’ll be able to play our winter sports.”

Mr. Whitman isn’t as bold as Notre Dame’s head coach Mike Brey, who went as far as saying basketball will save the day.

“I think college basketball is going to be positioned to come back and kind of save the day for college sports,” Brey stated. “Spring got canceled. Fall is hanging by a thread. We are going to come back and we’re going to play a cool NCAA Tournament and let’s invite everybody. All 351 teams get in. We do homesites and make it a spectacle that not only the players need, I think sports fans need. I think we are going to come all the way back around this pandemic and play college hoops.”

One of the most important opinions in college basketball will always be Tom Izzo – until the day he finally decides to retire. In his career as a coach, Tom has won 628 games, what seems like an endless number of deep tournament runs, and 16 regular and conference tournament championship finishes.

He’s a legend within the college basketball world and will go down with Coach K, Roy Williams, and others as the greatest coaches of their time, regardless of what Michigan fans think of the Spartan head man.

When Tom speaks, the NCAA listens for fear of losing one of their best ambassadors.

“I know we’re going to play,” Tom said early Thursday morning. “I don’t even think it’s a question. I’m not sure how the parameters will work — whether there’s a vaccine, whether there’s a bubble, whether we just play 26 conference games round-robin, but I think we’ll find a way.”

The biggest counterargument pushed by the naysayers is: how can we implement these games and do so safely?

Because of the NBA, the bubble idea has been thrown out by many, including myself. It’s working for them, why can’t it work for college? Well, it’s simple, these kids aren’t paid, and there isn’t as much money as there is with the pros.

Tom suggested what is being pushed harder and harder across those familiar with college basketball: mini bubbles.

“I don’t know what it would be, but I would picture it as bubbles — multiple bubbles,” Izzo said. “Like, if there were nonconference games, instead of us (just playing one game in the Champions Classic), the four teams go to one city, we all get the same hotel, we’re all quarantined and tested, and instead of one game, we all play each other on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Maybe in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, we go to Atlanta and play three ACC teams or something like that. I think there could be all kinds of bubbles.”

Based on what we’ve seen from college football players, the kids want to play. They understand the risks, and yet they still desire court time.

As long as there clear guidelines regarding opting out while still maintaining eligibility, medical professional sign off, and there is parental consent, let’s play ball!