MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The 15th-ranked West Virginia men’s basketball team will board a plane Monday afternoon heading towards Sioux Falls, S.D.
Where the Mountaineers’ season, as well as the entire college basketball season, goes from there is still very much unknown.
Once arriving at the Crossover Classic — the Mountaineers will take on South Dakota State on Wednesday — WVU players are expected to live a life of near isolation in the coming days while playing in a tournament in one of the most COVID-19 infected states in this country.
The Mountaineers have not been exempt from the coronavirus, having had to halt summer workouts for two weeks in July, after five players and a staff member tested positive.
“The virus, you never know when it can get you, so if you take the right precautions and stay one step ahead of getting sick and getting your teammates sick, it’s a domino effect,” WVU forward Derek Culver said. “This COVID thing has surprised me. It’s a lot more serious than I thought it was.”
The state of South Dakota is reporting an average of nearly 1,400 new cases daily in recent weeks and according to reported figures, the state stands at 52% in its infectious rate.
Those numbers played a role in the ever-changing bracket in the Crossover Classic, which has seen six teams opt out of the tournament and six new ones brought in.
In WVU’s case, the Mountaineers have had three — Texas A&M, Northern Iowa and South Dakota State — different first-round opponents named and no official time or TV designation has been given for their first game as of Saturday.
According to the Crossover Classic’s web site, players and coaches will be tested three times while in South Dakota, with the first test coming upon arrival to Sioux Falls.
That is a test rate WVU players have already grown accustomed to, as Big 12 protocols have its athletes tested three times each week.
The team will be tested prior to leaving Monday, with results being made available immediately. Anyone testing positive will not make the trip to the tournament.
Living life locked away from much of the rest of the world, too, is something WVU players are getting used to.
“We all kind of voiced our opinion on that and if we do all want to hang out we’ll all come together as a team and we’ll go to one of the players’ apartment and gets some pizza and watch some games,” WVU forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. said. “That’s about what we’re used to now and that’s kind of the new lifestyle.”
To be sure, it is a sacrifice. The WVU players are young college men. Most of them have yet to reach 21 years old. They surely see what others their age are doing.
Those others, though, aren’t part of a nationally-ranked basketball program that returns four starters and most of its key players for a possible run at the school’s first national title.
“You have kids that don’t really care and then you have kids that do care,” Matthews said. “There are kids that go out all of the time and you see it on their Snapchat and Instagram stories.
“They’re out there having a fun time, but it’s just one of those sacrifices we have to make, because at the end of the day, we all have a goal of winning a national championship. We have to give up those things for that. And I’m fine with that.”
And so it is sort of the unknown the Mountaineers will be flying into Monday.
Wins and losses will still count during the 2020-21 season, but more newsworthy could be just how many games will actually be played, as a player’s health will suddenly become just as important as his 3-point shooting percentage.
WVU’s home opener, scheduled for Dec. 2 against Youngstown State, has already been postponed.
The Penguins are currently one of 32 schools that have paused all basketball activities, due to COVID-19.
That number does not include the eight teams in the Ivy League, which has canceled its basketball season.
WVU has 27 games scheduled. It needs to play a minimum of 13 to reach criteria to be considered for the NCAA tournament.
“Getting to that number of 13 is an important goal,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright told the Associated Press. “I think every program, when they get to 13, is going to breathe a sigh of relief.”
Getting back to the NCAA tournament won’t exactly be a sigh of relief for the Mountaineers, but WVU players have already realized that in a pandemic-filled season, playing in the Final Four or winning the Big 12 championship may not necessarily come down to which team has the best better players.
The healthiest players, too, will come into play.
“There are so many unknowns with this virus and everything that’s going on around the country,” WVU point guard Jordan McCabe said. “You pray that everybody just stays safe, but at the same time, we want to play basketball. That’s what we came here to do. We think it can be done in a safe and reasonable manner.”
Note
According to WVU officials, if anyone in WVU’s travel party were to test positive for COVID-19 while in South Dakota, they would be immediately isolated and then sent back to Morgantown, most likely in a rental car. It’s a 16-hour drive from Sioux Falls to Morgantown.
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