This interview with Dan Gavitt — who I think is generally pretty smart — was so incongruous with itself that was enormously frustrating. It’s a total cheerleader video for why kids should stay in college basketball, when in reality what college basketball looks like is unknown. https://twitter.com/TheAndyKatz/status/1289549099675471874

Most coaches I’ve talked to are very hesitant to start the season in early November. The buy game model does not really work for a lot of these non-con games without fans. KSR just reported that Kentucky sent its players home for a week to start August…. (1/2)

There are just so many moving parts. To say “we’re planning to start the season on schedule on November 10” with confidence is wild to me. NCAA is not doing nearly enough in terms of creating strict structures right now like other successful leagues have in order to find success

“We’ve got a high level of confidence that as long as basketball is being played safely anywhere in the world this season, that we’ll be playing NCAA college basketball as well,” Gavitt says at the 50-minute mark.

This is wild in the context of the NCAA (1/2). https://twitter.com/marchmadness/status/1289546430022000640

Leagues that have had any success so far are ones that have had a strong, centralized governing body administering strict rules. Bubbles, for instance.

You need to come up with a plan before you can have confidence about playing a national season. The NCAA has not done that.

For the NBA, there is financial incentive for players to play. Right or wrong, there is a case that financial turmoil the players would be shouldering by not playing is so vast, it makes sense to play. Even then, only when the game is enclosed from the outside world in a bubble

College basketball players have nowhere near the financial incentives, and the NCAA has not done nearly enough to create a centralized safe structure for them to play in as COVID rolls through the country.

Like, to quote @GaryParrishCBS, what are we even talking about here?

Yeah, that interview frustrated me an awful lot. But I’ll stop there and get a coffee.