So far no player or coach has been sent home from the NCAA Tournaments.
There were six officials, who are supposed to be grown men, and five support team members who have left Indianapolis because of covid-19.
The officials’ rooms weren’t ready and there was no food, so they went to dinner. Without masks.
One later tested positive and the other five had been to dinner with him. Without masks.
Of those six, four are rated in the Top 12 of college basketball officials.
This will go down as the strangest NCAA Tournament in history, and hopefully it is a one and done.
Players and coaches are confined to their rooms unless eating or practicing. Crowd capacity will be confined to 25 percent. Even the media was limited to five journalists per school.
I’ve been to NCAA Tournaments that had more credentialed media than seats available.
Once I had to ask then Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski to get out of my seat, he grumbled but moved. The same with ABC’s Chris Fowler, who more than grumbled but left when he saw an official coming that way.
As far as yours truly is concerned the NCAA Basketball Tournament is the greatest event in the world.
Three weekends of single elimination fun.
No doubt money was a big factor for the NCAA having this tournament, but so far, it has done everything it can to make sure the games get played.