Syracuse Basketball: If nixing non-conference gets season played, go for it
By Neil Adler
If Rick Pitino had his way, his Iona crew, Syracuse basketball and all the other teams around the country would only play league games in 2020-21.
Syracuse basketball has some intriguing match-ups slated for the non-conference portion of its 2020-21 campaign, whether it’s LSU, Georgetown, or 2018 NCAA Tournament darling UMBC.
However, Iona head coach Rick Pitino, who often got the better of Jim Boeheim and his Orange teams during Pitino’s time at Louisville, is suggesting – and it’s not a bad one – that the NCAA push back the beginning of the 2020-21 term to early next year and have schools only suit up for conference contests.
Pitino voiced his opinion via Twitter, noting that if the upcoming season started in January and only featured league encounters, it could “buy some more time for a vaccine and to get things under control.”
Obviously, Pitino is referring to the novel coronavirus pandemic, and efforts by scientists in the United States and around the world to develop and also manufacture an effective vaccine against this virus.
Suggestion to the NCAA, push the start of the season back to January and only play league games. Buy some more time for a vaccine and to get things under control. Although I can’t wait to be back on the sidelines, the health of my players and staff is what’s really important.
— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) July 1, 2020
Cases of Covid-19 have numbered in the tens of thousands per day of late in the United States. It’s unclear whether a 2020 college football stanza will occur, let alone collegiate hoops, which wouldn’t transpire for another few months.
Yes, it would prove a total disappointment if the ‘Cuse didn’t face off with the Hoyas, UMBC and other scheduled non-conference foes, or in the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
Heck, Boeheim and two-time national champion Pitino are supposed to each coach this December at Madison Square Garden in New York City – but just not versus each other. In mid-June, media reports indicated that Pitino’s Iona will play Stony Brook, while Syracuse will meet LSU, in the 2020 Gotham Classic.
Maybe waiting until January will provide a bit more time for a 2020-21 college basketball season to realistically take place. Then again, maybe it won’t. So much is unknown at this juncture.
What I will say is this. If slicing the upcoming campaign short, and eliminating non-conference games, means that we’re able to have a term at all, then I’m in favor of Pitino’s proposal.