With each new week of the season, IU head coach Archie Miller said he crosses his fingers and hopes for the best.
Since the season began in November, the IU men’s basketball team has been lucky. The Hoosiers haven't had to shut down due to a COVID-19 outbreak and have none of its nonconference games were canceled.
But that luck avoiding an outbreak within the program hasn’t happened completely by chance. Miller said it has been a very exhausting and challenging — but needed — process to ensure the safety of both the players and team staff.
“It’s very taxing, especially for very young people,” Miller said Friday on a Zoom call. “We’re up every morning realistically since the middle of September or beginning of October, and everyone in our group is testing between 7:30 in the morning and 8 o’clock every day. I think you guys know, for young guys to have a schedule like that to wake up every morning, every day to get tested, it wears on you.”
One of the biggest effects of the rigorous testing protocols enforced by both IU and the Big Ten conference is that the team’s off days are no longer truly “off.” Miller said there is no longer such things as a lazy morning, not with testing. Even without practice, everyone within the program is required to get tested at 7:30 a.m.
Nearly three months into their daily testing schedule, some players still haven’t gotten used to the new normal.
“It’s real early,” sophomore guard Armaan Franklin said. “When we have practice at 11 like we did the other day, we got tested between 8 and 8:30, and we're just here until practice time. You can get extra lifts in or get extra shots, but it’s something I haven’t gotten used to yet.”
Since the start of the season, Miller said the anxiety associated with hoping everyone remains healthy has only increased.
Six of the Hoosiers’ eight nonconference games have been played away from home, which Miller called “nerve-wracking.” He said playing in the Maui Invitational in November with seven other teams originally caused some concern, but the tournament’s blueprint to limit interactions between teams and keep everyone safe was very successful and hopefully will provide the NCAA insight while planning for the NCAA Tournament.
As IU prepares to head into conference play after its final nonconference matchup against Butler University on Saturday in the Crossroads Classic, there is some comfort in Big Ten programs largely being able to avoid outbreaks through the first month of the season.
For now, IU will continue to approach each day carefully with crossed fingers hoping its season doesn’t suddenly get derailed.
“You have to try and be diligent with what you are doing off the floor because you know what a positive can lead to moving forward,” Miller said. “To me it has to be done and it also goes a long way in terms of your team wanting to be successful. The better you handle some of these things that you are being asked to do, that are not the most comfortable, the better you are going to be in terms of having a successful opportunity to complete your season the best you can.”
