Ivy League Basketball Season In Jeopardy Due To COVID-19 Pandemic

The Ivy League was the first conference to cancel its conference tournament in March, paving the way in which for each different convention to do the identical and, in the end, for the NCAA Event to be canceled for the primary time ever.

Now the 2020-21 Ivy League basketball season is in jeopardy as a result of Harvard — and presumably different groups — will not be anticipated to play this season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After canceling fall sports and saying no winter sports would begin until at least Jan. 1, the league has not made any official assertion on the upcoming winter season. The NESCAC — which incorporates prime educational colleges like Wesleyan, Williams and Amherst — canceled winter sports earlier this month.

The NCAA Division 1 season will begin Nov. 25, with many leagues planning a number of weeks of non-conference play earlier than league play begins in mid-December.

Most of the Ivy League’s coaches stay optimistic a basketball season can occur, however a number of league sources stated Harvard is just not anticipated to play this yr.

One supply stated if he was betting, he’d wager towards Harvard enjoying this yr. The varsity is just not planning to have college students again within the spring so there’s “no probability” Harvard would play, the supply stated.

“There may be zero probability Harvard is enjoying this yr,” a second supply stated.

Harvard coach Tommy Amaker didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Harvard at present has three gamers within the NCAA Switch portal — senior ahead Danilo Djuricic, senior guard Reed Farley and senior guard Mario Haskett — with sources saying the gamers want to grad-transfer subsequent fall. The Ivy League has lengthy had a rule that stops postgraduate gamers from enjoying sports activities, and last year 12 players transferred out, together with 9 who have been granted instant eligibility. A number of grad-transferred to high-profile basketball packages like Duke, Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama and Seton Corridor, the place they’re instantly eligible this season.

It’s unclear if different high-profile Ivy League packages, akin to Yale and Princeton, will play this season.

The Yale males’s hockey crew just had a COVID outbreak that impacted 18 players.

“All different members of the lads’s ice hockey crew who’re within the New Haven space, in addition to the Athletics employees who’ve labored immediately with them, have been instructed to quarantine and to take part within the college testing program, whether or not or not they’ve been recognized as shut contacts of contaminated crew members,” Stephanie Spangler, Vice Provost for Well being Affairs and Educational Integrity, stated in a letter to the Yale neighborhood Thursday night, per CNN.

A supply stated a number of returning members of the Yale basketball crew took jobs or internships off campus through the first semester, however are “able to enroll” if the season begins in January.

Whether or not the league would function a season with fewer than the complete eight groups stays unsure, however a number of sources stated they might go ahead with 5-6 groups.

“It’s a matter of the league having sufficient groups,” one league supply stated. “We’ll have a semblance of a league. I’ve heard Harvard is out. I feel if we will have 5 groups play, that’s what we’ll do.”

Mentioned one other supply: “I’ve a sense it might be the entire league isn’t going to play. It will take a very distinctive scenario for one crew to not play.”

A number of league sources stated they count on a proper announcement from the Ivy League on its plans someday in November or December.

“There was no determination made previous the tip of the autumn time period,” Ivy League spokesman Meghan Moore stated Monday in an e mail. “The Leagues’ Presidents and Athletics Administrators proceed to fulfill frequently to debate numerous choices for the return to competitors for our fall, winter and spring student-athletes in 2021.”