NCAA basketball game held without fans due to coronavirus fears
BALTIMORE - In what was believed to be the first U.S. sports event held without fans because of the new coronavirus, Yeshiva University beat Worcester Polytechnic Institute in a Division III men’s basketball NCAA Tournament game Friday in an empty gym at Johns Hopkins University.
Players on each bench cheered and chanted “De-fense!” to make up for the lack of fans. The squeaking sound of sneakers and bouncing of the ball reverberated off the walls of the 1,100-seat Goldfarb Gymnasium that was otherwise so quiet that the in-game chatter could be heard several rows back.
“It was definitely a weird experience,” WPI forward Jake Wisniewski said. “All the emotions that are going on the court, everyone was able to hear it, which was weird. Usually, the crowd can kind of mask a lot of things that are being said on the court.”
As students walked by the athletics facility, there were police officers outside and signs on doors reading, “No spectators.” Music blared over the speakers inside and some pre-planned fan announcements, including one promoting social media sharing - “Tell the world you’re here” - went on with no fans to hear them.
Only players, coaches, referees, employees and media members were present, so the official attendance was 0.
“It was definitely different, but our guys on the bench really made up for it,” Yeshiva coach Elliott Steinmetz said after the 102-78 win. “The energy on the bench was absolutely awesome, and I think it really carried the guys on the court in a big way.”
An NCAA COVID-19 advisory panel said Friday it is “not recommending cancellation or public spacing of athletic and related events scheduled to occur in public spaces across the United States.” Johns Hopkins senior scholar Amesh Adalja is on the panel.
The NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournament begin in less than in two weeks. Those games will be played in large arenas in front of crowds of thousands across the country, from Spokane, Washington, to Albany, New York. The men’s semifinals and championship game are scheduled for April 4 and April 6 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which seats 75,000.
Dr. Brian Hainline, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, said in an interview with the AP on Friday night that contingency plans are being discussed and include playing games with only essential personal at the site - as was done at Johns Hopkins.
“That probably is the ultimate scenario that we’re ready for,” Hainline said.
Johns Hopkins University said it was “prudent to hold this tournament without spectators” after Maryland’s recently confirmed COVID-19 cases and CDC guidelines for large gatherings. Maryland announced there were three cases of the virus.
A student at Yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish university in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, tested positive for the virus.
The game was delayed by more than an hour after a Yeshiva rabbi tested positive and the school needed to provide documentation to ensure it was safe to play. WPI waited at its hotel while that was completed, and three players decided not to take the court because of fears about the virus.
“Once we got the OK from Johns Hopkins University and the NCAA that they felt comfortable, we had most of our team and student-athletes and parents comfortable about playing. We didn’t have everybody, though,” WPI coach Chris Bartley said. “We left it up to the individual student and their parents to make that decision and we tried to provide as much information as possible. The difficulty in this situation is there was not much information for us to disseminate to our parents and students.”
When things got underway, the national anthem and starting lineups went on as normal with players giving each other fist bumps instead of handshakes. The two coaches shook hands before tipoff and shared some disappointment the game wasn’t played in a normal environment.
“Fans are part of the experience,” Bartley said. “It’s too bad that given the importance of reaching the NCAA Tournament that not only the Yeshiva team but our student-athletes didn’t get the full experience.”
It didn’t affect Yeshiva, which won its first NCAA Tournament game in program history and extended its winning streak this season to 28. Sophomore Ryan Turell, who scored a career-high 41 points in the empty arena, said players were focused on basketball and not the strange circumstances.
Host Johns Hopkins was set to face Penn State Harrisburg on Friday night, with the winner playing Yeshiva in the second round Saturday night The gym was heavily disinfected Thursday night and then again between games Friday.
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