The last thing Clemson basketball needed was another COVID pause
The last thing the Clemson basketball team needed right now was a pause in their season due to COVID-19 testing and contact-tracing.
Let’s start by saying that you can’t predict these things and there’s not much you can do to control them, but it still doesn’t help and places even more pressure on a team when they do happen.
Clemson basketball had one long pause due to positive COVID-19 tests earlier this season and the result after a long hiatus of 11 days. The Tigers were 9-1 at the time of the hiatus and, after returning, they went on a three-game losing streak in which they were outscored 248-176 (an average of 24 points per game).
They beat Louisville, but then were blown out by Duke. Following that loss to the Blue Devils, though, Clemson basketball had been on a three-game winning streak and the Tigers were slowly but surely beginning to look a little bit like the team we saw back in December.
Now, with a positive test and subsequent contact tracing, Clemson basketball will suffer another hiatus
There is no word on how long the hiatus will last and much of that will have to do with testing over the next few days and to see how big of an outbreak it is.
Brad Brownell met with the media virtually on Monday and said he hoped his team had learned from the time off earlier in the season and will come out looking sharper this time around when they do get back on the court.
"“We did not play well for a couple of weeks, and it was not all COVID related. Then the last two weeks we have gotten back to playing the right way and have won four out of five,” Brownell said. “We had a spirited practice, as you would assume, yesterday. It was eerily similar to when we called them off the court the Friday before we were supposed to go to North Carolina when our guys were about to practice but had a good Thursday practice and excited for Friday. But we had to take them off the court.“So, it is hard because a lot of this in these long seasons … the morale of your team, the spirit of your team and where your team is at that time is often as important as anything you do as a coach. Are your guys in a good frame of mind? Are you confident? Are you practicing well? Do you have guys in a good mental state, probably this year more than any, both individually and collectively as a group?”"
When you just get back into a rhythm and shots are finally starting to fall at a higher clip, you want to continue to ride that wave.
Now, the Tigers will have to wait on more rounds of testing and contact-tracing to occur to know when they’ll be able to get back on the floor.
As Brownell said, this season has been difficult for a lot of reasons and certainly there has to be some ‘pandemic fatigue’ even around athletes who are playing, but having to go through the irregularities of playing during a pandemic.
Clemson is still scheduled to play Pittsburgh on Sunday, but that will all depend on the next few rounds of testing.