I'll come clean. I've had a difficult time getting started on this season's basketball preview, even though the football program is doing everything they can to turn my focus to the hardwood.
Some of that stems from the lack of closure to Juwan Howard's debut season, which the ongoing pandemic ended as Michigan warmed up for their opening Big Ten Tournament game, an event that somehow occurred this calendar year. Xavier Simpson and Jon Teske never got their hero sendoffs, Franz Wagner's ascent was interrupted, and we'd never find out if the team would gel in the postseason around a healthy Isaiah Livers—nor how Howard would coach with the full rotation finally at his disposal.
A force of an entirely different nature is also working against my brain: unconstrained excitement for the 2021-22 season, when Michigan may very well be bringing the #1 recruiting class in the country to campus. It's hard not to sense a transition year after Howard's top recruiting targets for this season slipped away and he's signed two five-star prospects in a loaded six-player class for next year.
yeah that might be a problem
There's also that pesky ongoing pandemic. Today, the NCAA announced it's moving the entire D-I men's basketball tournament to Indianapolis, which was previously slated to host the Final Four. The schedule is all but nonexistent less than two weeks before the season's supposed November 25th start date. Michigan doesn't have a 2020-21 schedule page on their official site. They've booked two games: the ACC/B1G Challenge matchup against NC State next month and a Nov. 29th tilt with Oakland, both taking place at the Crisler Center.
Seton Hall shut down practices last week, becoming the fourth Big East team to deal with a COVID outbreak this offseason. Tom Izzo and Jim Boeheim both tested positive for the virus in the last week; Izzo is physically isolating himself from Michigan State's program while Syracuse has had to shut down entirely after another member of the program tested positive. The voice of reason at the moment is the head coach of the Iona Gaels.
Yes, that Rick Pitino. We're in a bad place, collectively. It's hard to have a season without a schedule; it's hard to have a schedule without some general guidelines for how to safely play in a pandemic.
Will they forge on? Almost certainly, whether they remain on schedule or not. March Madness is a cash cow the NCAA's member schools will let go unplayed for a second straight year only if there's no other option. I'm not here to endorse this course of action, only to write about it.
[Hit THE JUMP for SO, LET'S TALK MICHIGAN BASKETBALL]
29