A couple of days after SMU played East Carolina on Feb. 8, positive coronavirus cases started to pop up in the SMU basketball program. East Carolina also had cases. The game was likely a spreader event that led to both programs being paused.
SMU hasn’t played since that game and was scheduled to play Tulsa on Sunday. But that game was canceled by the American Athletic Conference due to the continued suspension of activities in the Mustangs’ program.
“That’s when we started having positive cases,” SMU athletic director Rick Hart said after the East Carolina game. “It seems like we had a couple, and then the doctors said, ‘If we have another one, we’re going to need to take a pause and figure out what’s going on and try to contain it.’”
There is uncertainty over whether the season will resume. And the situation is made muddier by the fact that some players have now been reinfected. There have also been some cases that have come with severe symptoms.
The Mustangs resumed practice from their pause on Feb. 26 after having two consecutive testing cycles that showed no positive cases. Practice was being conducted with about six players — everyone that was either contact-traced or positive could not practice. Almost immediately after the resumption, another positive case was detected, and the pause re-started. The new pause led to cancelations of all remaining games in the regular season, with the SMU-Tulsa game on Sunday canceled on Tuesday afternoon.
In order to come out from the pause, SMU must now show three consecutive testing cycles, using PCR tests, without a positive test. The best case scenario is a return to practice on Wednesday. The medical staff would have to consider if the returning players should be playing in a game, even if they’re cleared to return.
All of this has led to uncertainty over whether the season will resume. The American Athletic Conference Tournament starts March 11.
“I think when you’ve endured what we’ve endured, and it’s unfolded the way it has, it doesn’t inspire a high level of confidence for predicting the future,” Hart said. “However, I am optimistic we can get back on the court this season.”
Even if SMU does return, the personnel might be limited. The school says players with asymptomatic positive cases need at least 17 days before returning. Players with mildly symptomatic cases need a minimum of 21 days before a return. And severely symptomatic cases require around 28 to 35 days before returning.
While SMU has not had any athletes hospitalized, Hart said, there have been people with severe symptoms. On the coaching side of it, Tim Jankovich already recovered from his own debilitating case of COVID-19.
“We haven’t been concerned of anybody’s long-term health,” Hart said. “But also, I don’t want to minimize it. We’ve had some cases with severe symptoms. The recovery on some of this is quite intensive.”
Hart said the school and league’s medical experts make the decisions on whether to play. And he believes that they’ve done things the right way, and followed the science, even if the situation is what it is.
“I would imagine, on the whole, we’ve probably done as well as anybody in terms of availability and contests played and just how we’ve managed the health and safety part of it,” Hart said of the athletic department as a whole. “So it’s hard to be critical of anything. ... A lot of this out of our control.”
The reinfections have been a concern, because they indicate the possibility that a variant strain is impacting the team, which might lessen the immunity players had because of positive cases contracted months ago.
“I’ve had people ask, ‘What’s different about basketball? Why is this happening? Is there something wrong with our protocols,’” Hart said. “And it’s the same protocols that we’ve applied across all our sports. It’s the same protocols that were praised in the fall.”
SMU has been on the cusp of making the NCAA Tournament. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had SMU as the sixth team out of the field of 68. But the fact that SMU has played just 15 games and doesn’t have any Quadrant I wins makes it hard to imagine the Mustangs could make the NCAA Tournament without winning the conference tournament.
That could require four wins in four days for SMU — increasing the risk that it wouldn’t reach the threshold to secure a first-round bye. Then the question is, can this team — that’s been off and sick for a month without players — win those four games?
“SMU has a chance to make the tournament just watch,” Mustangs forward Feron Hunt tweeted on Monday.
He’s definitely right about that, though the chances have been dwindling as eight consecutive games have been canceled — seven because of COVID-19 and one because of power outages.
All season, even when this team was playing, it felt as though it was a roller coaster with players taking time away for personal reasons, coaches being out, and in-game collapses becoming commonplace. But through all that, until Feb. 8, the team was able to continue functioning. Over the last month, that hasn’t been the case. But this weird and exhausting year isn’t quite over.
“To use the winter storm analogy, it’s like a leaky faucet,” Hart said. “We thought we had it, where we could get back, and then we couldn’t. ... It’s unfortunate, and it’s frustrating, and it’s all the other words that you want to use, that we haven’t been able to get back on the court.”
