AJC Article - Pastner Tries Unheard of Plan

[Jacketman99]

I hate to break it to you, but if they face teams that practices with full contact they’re going to be unprepared. Best chance there is that the opponent can’t play due to Covid.

If this works then the argument could be made that practice is worthless.

Bottom line is all of this stuff is stupid. I’ve still yet to hear of a single college athlete having a serious case of COVID. Tons of cases, but everyone gets better and returns. The kids themselves generally don’t seem to be concerned. Meanwhile we still put the dog and pony show on about how we are protecting everyone.

If you’re going to play then play. Otherwise just throw in the towel. I can’t watch the basketball equivalent of what’s going on with out football kicking game where we blame Covid for pathetic game day performance. Hopefully I’m wrong.

There was also a Georgia State qb that developed a heart condition as a result of contracting Covid who is sitting out the season.

Ga. State QB has COVID-related heart condition

Georgia State freshman QB Mikele Colasurdo, who arrived on campus in the spring, won't play this season after being diagnosed with a heart condition related to contracting COVID-19.

www.espn.com

 

[gameface]

There was also a Georgia State qb that developed a heart condition as a result of contracting Covid who is sitting out the season.

Ga. State QB has COVID-related heart condition

Georgia State freshman QB Mikele Colasurdo, who arrived on campus in the spring, won't play this season after being diagnosed with a heart condition related to contracting COVID-19.

www.espn.com

Wasn't he later cleared to play?

 

[RamblinRed]

I'm less concerned with this strategy as most of the rotation returns. I'd be more concerned if you were expecting newcomers to play alot of min.

we'll see how it goes.
College FB is up to 15 games cancelled/postponed this weekend - that is over 30% of the entire schedule. That is both the highest raw number of games and highest percentage of games so far this season. Given what is happening in the country as a whole it seems unlikely that is going to improve for the rest of the season.

College basketball being played indoors, with more games, alot of physical play and no pads/helmets like football will probably make it more susceptible to outbreaks.

 

[684Bee]

I hate to break it to you, but if they face teams that practices with full contact they’re going to be unprepared. Best chance there is that the opponent can’t play due to Covid.

If this works then the argument could be made that practice is worthless.

Bottom line is all of this stuff is stupid. I’ve still yet to hear of a single college athlete having a serious case of COVID. Tons of cases, but everyone gets better and returns. The kids themselves generally don’t seem to be concerned. Meanwhile we still put the dog and pony show on about how we are protecting everyone.

If you’re going to play then play. Otherwise just throw in the towel. I can’t watch the basketball equivalent of what’s going on with out football kicking game where we blame Covid for pathetic game day performance. Hopefully I’m wrong.

Agree. This is silly.

 

[bke1984]

Wasn't he later cleared to play?

Yes.

 

[bke1984]

The death of Jamain Stephens Jr. should be a wake-up call for college football

Jamain Stephens Jr. was a prominent figure at California University of Pennsylvania (Cal U), a small university in southwestern Pennsylvania.

www.jhunewsletter.com

Also I am sure you’re familiar with the loss of smell and taste some patients experience. That’s a brain stem based set of issues.

The scariest part of this is no one knows the potential long term effects of Covid. I’m not trying to fear monger, but it’s factually wrong and socially irresponsible to post content that suggests the disease is not a concern for young people.

I disagree. Statistics overwhelmingly suggest that most people (not even just young people) are going to be fine. But let’s put that argument aside because I’m not going to convince you otherwise on this and it’s not the argument I want to make anyhow.

Let’s focus on Pastner’s plan for a second. So the idea is to have contactless practices to ensure that you don’t have to quarantine your whole team for two weeks? Once the season starts you play two games a week. I can’t imagine a scenario where your whole team wouldn’t be required to quarantine anyhow. So how does this plan even get around the issue? Seems like it just puts us as a disadvantage without providing any real benefit.

 

[glandon1960]

I disagree. Statistics overwhelmingly suggest that most people (not even just young people) are going to be fine. But let’s put that argument aside because I’m not going to convince you otherwise on this and it’s not the argument I want to make anyhow.

Let’s focus on Pastner’s plan for a second. So the idea is to have contactless practices to ensure that you don’t have to quarantine your whole team for two weeks? Once the season starts you play two games a week. I can’t imagine a scenario where your whole team wouldn’t be required to quarantine anyhow. So how does this plan even get around the issue? Seems like it just puts us as a disadvantage without providing any real benefit

 

[gt02]

I disagree. Statistics overwhelmingly suggest that most people (not even just young people) are going to be fine. But let’s put that argument aside because I’m not going to convince you otherwise on this and it’s not the argument I want to make anyhow.

Let’s focus on Pastner’s plan for a second. So the idea is to have contactless practices to ensure that you don’t have to quarantine your whole team for two weeks? Once the season starts you play two games a week. I can’t imagine a scenario where your whole team wouldn’t be required to quarantine anyhow. So how does this plan even get around the issue? Seems like it just puts us as a disadvantage without providing any real benefit.

Yeah, I guess I don’t get what this get us. Presumably contact-less practice may slow the spread of covid if someone on the team has it. But if someone on the team has it, it is going to spread in other ways. Most of these guys live with each other. Plus it’s not like it helps us play more game. If someone contracts covid the whole team has to quarantine anyways.

 

[glandon1960]

I disagree. Statistics overwhelmingly suggest that most people (not even just young people) are going to be fine. But let’s put that argument aside because I’m not going to convince you otherwise on this and it’s not the argument I want to make anyhow.

Let’s focus on Pastner’s plan for a second. So the idea is to have contactless practices to ensure that you don’t have to quarantine your whole team for two weeks? Once the season starts you play two games a week. I can’t imagine a scenario where your whole team wouldn’t be required to quarantine anyhow. So how does this plan even get around the issue? Seems like it just puts us as a disadvantage without providing any real benefit.

If you do contact practice - and any player tests positive, you have to shutdown practice and postpone games for two weeks (maybe more if you factor in needed practice after shutdown to get back to where you were). During that time, players not positive can workout on their own - but not as a group/team.

Pastner's plan means if someone is positive - that player is out for two weeks, but team can keep practicing/playing (no different than if same person got injured and out for two weeks to recover). Will it be harder to play our best w/out contact practice - Yes. I agree w/Red that I am less concerned with a team that brings most players back vs. one counting on newcomers to play most of the minutes.

I am sure there will be games cancelled/postponed this year - question is how many - and do we get to a reasonable facsimile of a season.

Is being a little less ready to go better than having to shut things down mid-season for two weeks (how competitive will you be immediately after that)? TBD - Pastner thinks the two week shutdown is worse (my gut is he is right). The catch is what if player on another team we play tests positive after we play - that is something CJP can not control. I know the players will have to test negative to play a game, but I think there will be some impact to GT if player on another team test positive within 24-48 hours of playing GT.

CJP has a plan and is sticking to it, and he thinks it maximizes our chances. We will know come March if he was right. Other teams are going about practice as usual - and given community spread, are more likely to have to shut team down for extended period of time (maybe more than once).

 

[bke1984]

If you do contact practice - and any player tests positive, you have to shutdown practice and postpone games for two weeks (maybe more if you factor in needed practice after shutdown to get back to where you were). During that time, players not positive can workout on their own - but not as a group/team.

Pastner's plan means if someone is positive - that player is out for two weeks, but team can keep practicing/playing (no different than if same person got injured and out for two weeks to recover). Will it be harder to play our best w/out contact practice - Yes. I agree w/Red that I am less concerned with a team that brings most players back vs. one counting on newcomers to play most of the minutes.

I am sure there will be games cancelled/postponed this year - question is how many - and do we get to a reasonable facsimile of a season.

Is being a little less ready to go better than having to shut things down mid-season for two weeks (how competitive will you be immediately after that)? TBD - Pastner thinks the two week shutdown is worse (my gut is he is right). The catch is what if player on another team we play tests positive after we play - that is something CJP can not control. I know the players will have to test negative to play a game, but I think there will be some impact to GT if player on another team test positive within 24-48 hours of playing GT.

CJP has a plan and is sticking to it, and he thinks it maximizes our chances. We will know come March if he was right. Other teams are going about practice as usual - and given community spread, are more likely to have to shut team down for extended period of time (maybe more than once).

And if you do contact practices and a player on your team that played in a game or a player on an opposing team from that game tests positive then you have to shutdown for two weeks. So again, what does it do for us other than guarantee we will be less prepared than opponents that have contact practices? I just don’t see the benefit

 

[MidtownJacket]

First thanks for keeping it civil @bke1984 it’s refreshing to disagree with people agreeably.

I started a multi quote, but I am on a phone and it got super messy so let me just say I agree with much of what people here are saying.

I think CJP has got a process and is doing what he can to “control the controllables”.

I also tend to agree with you that once you’re in season, the higher exposure risk is from the other teams you’re playing and travel to / from games.

I’m also not sure if this approach really gets us around contact tracing policies and reduces the team’s requirement to sit out en masse. I mean he must believe that to be true because that’s the only positive I can see (and he’s obviously better positioned than I am to know).

We will see what comes from this whole experiment - but I’m hopeful given the returning players we have - that the downsides will be lightly mitigated.

 

[MtnWasp]

T

And if you do contact practices and a player on your team that played in a game or a player on an opposing team from that game tests positive then you have to shutdown for two weeks. So again, what does it do for us other than guarantee we will be less prepared than opponents that have contact practices? I just don’t see the benefit

The premise of your argument is that Gt will be less prepared than the opposition, that non-contact practice is not significantly different than no practice at all. Just because you believe it strongly doesn't make it true. This is uncharted territory and nobody KNOWS how it will play out.

So, the coach made a different decision regarding a complete novel situation than a fan would have made and the fan, even before seeing the outcome of the decision, goes ballistic. That much is fully charted territory.

 

[NorthsideJacket]

Just to clarify for me: this 'no contact' practice only starts once the games start, right? they are at least having contact practices in the preseason leading up to the first game, right?

 

[New Old Guy]

Just to clarify for me: this 'no contact' practice only starts once the games start, right? they are at least having contact practices in the preseason leading up to the first game, right?

Correct. They just had a full scrimmage.

 

[YlJacket]

Correct. They just had a full scrimmage.

I am glad to hear that. I had not picked that up or interpreted what I read that way.

 

[NorthsideJacket]

Correct. They just had a full scrimmage.

Thank you, sir. That makes this strategy a little more understandable. Just hoping beyond hope that we get treated with full season. Excited to see this group of guys compete!

 

[lv20gt]

Overall a lack of contact in practice in basketball isn't as big a deal as it is in football especially when you get to the point where you are playing games every couple of days. Certainly hurts but in football there are some things like blocking and tackling that you absolutely need contact to maintain the ability to do in game. In basketball most of the muscle memory stuff are things that you can work on individually like shooting and it's more getting used to game speed that is an issue. With games being played every couple of days I don't see that falling off as much.

As far as the advantage this gives us, my understanding is if we went full normal practice and had someone come down with a positive result, our entire team would be frozen for 2 weeks based on the ncaa guidelines and we'd likely lose something like 5-6 games because of it. Correct me if I'm wrong but that's my understanding. With the way Pastner is running it, I believe it would mean a positive case would cause the individual to need to be isolated for 2 weeks but the rest of the team can play. It would suck if we were a little bit underprepared for some games, but to me it would be worse if we miss 5 games because, for example, Meka came down with the virus. So this strategy to me is trying to maximize the amount of games we can play. Obviously other teams might cancel because of their situations but you can't control what other teams do.

That brings up the question of whether it's better to play fewer games but be normally prepared or more games but slightly less prepared. My guess is that playing more games is better for us. Usually the NCAAT seems to favor good wins and bad losses over just volume record. For instance, we have more to gain by beating duke where losing to them doesn't really hurt. I think in general, for the majority of ACC teams a loss wouldn't be seen as a bad loss so we should do what we can to play the most games.

That's the way I view it. I'm not sure if there is an obvious best answer to this. I'm glad we seem to have a plan though.



.

 

[Fatmike91]

I'm not a fan of this approach. Basketball is a team sport.

We play TEAM defense. You can't practice a zone alone.

On offense, are we're going to practice back cutting by yourself? I know, I'll run a pick a roll...

We will end up playing too much 1:1 on offense, and lose the vibrant switching zone that seems to work really well for us.

/

 

[lv20gt]

I'm not a fan of this approach. Basketball is a team sport.

We play TEAM defense. You can't practice a zone alone.

On offense, are we're going to practice back cutting by yourself? I know, I'll run a pick a roll...

We will end up playing too much 1:1 on offense, and lose the vibrant switching zone that seems to work really well for us.

/

Non contact isn't the same as individual.

 

[alagold]

WE couldn't even THINK about doing this if we didn't have 4 exp'd starters and others as subs.