When USC basketball can return from COVID-19 pause, what it means for Clemson game
South Carolina men’s basketball won’t be able to return to the practice court from a COVID-19 pause until next Thursday at the earliest.
Where that leaves the Gamecocks’ annual rivalry game with Clemson, scheduled for two days later on Saturday, Dec. 19, USC coach Frank Martin isn’t sure.
“I haven’t even thought about that,” Martin told reporters Thursday night. “I mean, all this has been like, bang, bang, bang, coming at us at a million miles per hour.”
The cases in South Carolina’s program, which have thus far been confined among players, were first announced Tuesday evening, shortly after its last opponent Houston announced it had identified cases. That forced the Gamecocks to cancel their Thursday game with Wofford. As recently as Wednesday night, Martin said he was hopeful they could return in time to play its scheduled game with George Washington on Monday.
Thursday morning, South Carolina announced its game with GW was canceled. For now, the Clemson contest is still on the books. Even if there are no more positive tests or close contacts identified, the Gamecocks would have a tight turnaround to play.
Still, when Martin was asked about the comments of legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who questioned continuing to play this season amid the pandemic, he said he felt “we need to play.”
“I’m all for playing. But I’m not against rethinking. We’re trying to play our season the regular way in an irregular year,” Martin said. “That doesn’t fit. Everyone else — football, the NBA and everyone, every sport organization — has made adjustments. I think we need to maybe think about this moving forward, on what we can adjust to make it better.”
One adjustment Martin plans on making? South Carolina won’t be traveling until conference play starts, he said. The Gamecocks’ outbreak occurred in the aftermath of their trip to Houston over the weekend — Martin said the program’s contact tracing efforts haven’t determined how and when exactly South Carolina players contracted the virus.
“All we know is that we got back from Houston, and Houston announced they had positive tests. And then our guys wanted to test. And so we had an additional test, and that’s when we found out that we had positives,” Martin said.
There are no more road nonconference games currently on the schedule, but Martin added that he has had conversations with trying to get a game or two back once South Carolina starts playing again.
There’s not a ton else he can do during this isolation period, when players and coaches will not be able to gather. There will also be some recruiting and film work, but at a time of year when Martin is used to being engrossed in the season, this mandatory break is odd, he admitted.
“I’ve never had seven days off at this time of the year,” Martin said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 8:05 PM with the headline "When USC basketball can return from COVID-19 pause, what it means for Clemson game."
