The fallout of the last few hours have been difficult to wrap our arms around. What started as a typical Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville on Wednesday evening quickly turned into an event without fans for the final four days. One day later the entire affair was cancelled. The elimination of the NCAA Basketball Tournament as well as other NCAA sanctioned championships for winter and spring sports are the most recent precautions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Another area of college sports that is going to be negatively impacted is recruiting. Basketball will particularly be faced with some problematic issues.
We are already beginning to see fallout. It was announced in the past two days that the GEICO Nationals, Jordan Brand Classic and the McDonald's All-American Games have been cancelled. This morning, the Nike Hoops Summit was cancelled as well.
The Southeastern Conference office originally cancelled all athletic activities through March 30, but on Friday afternoon the league issued a press release that will extend that window by roughly another two weeks.
"The Southeastern Conference today announced that all athletics activities, including competitions, team and individual practices, meetings and other organized gatherings, will be suspended through at least April 15, due to continuing developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The SEC had previously announced that all competition was suspended until March 30. That suspension of competition has been extended through April 15 and now includes all organized team activities.
SEC athletics programs will cease practices, individual and team workouts effective the end of the day Friday, March 13. Team meetings shall conclude no later than 5 pm local time on Monday, March 16.
SEC member institutions will continue to provide their student-athletes with care and support to meet needs in areas including academics, medical care, mental health and wellness, nutrition and housing as needed."
These precautions will also have consequences in recruiting. The spring is a busy time for player visits in almost all sports. For example, football's spring game is one of the huge days for having recruits on campus.
The men's basketball program will be impacted as much as any sport, and the ripple effects have already begun to be seen.
According to NCAA guidelines, the recruiting quiet period occurs on April 1, followed by the dead period from April 2-9. Another dead period is in effect from April 13-16. After that there will be two evaluation periods in which coaches can get out and watch players at live AAU events: April 17-19 and April 24-26.
The focal point of April's live period is to see prospects play in AAU events. Just about all of the prospects that a Power Five program like Vanderbilt would watch play on the shoe circuits. Earlier today, all three shoe companies: Nike, Adidas and Under Armour announced that they would be canceling April events.
That leaves us to play the waiting game. The best case scenario is that the tournaments in May can still be played, and that the NCAA would move back the recruiting calendar a month. It is believed that part two will happen if part one becomes a reality. But in the present world, who knows what the impact of the coronavirus is going to be in the United States.
The precautions also lead to a ban with on and off-campus visits. In other words, recruits can't take unofficial or unofficial visits, and coaches can't take home visits or go to a prospect's high school. Some visits were lined up for the spring. In fact, 2021 guard, Payton Daniels, recently told us he wanted to come to campus in late March once his high school season concluded. To our knowledge, texts and phones calls between players and coaches can continue.
Vanderbilt is still heavily involved with seniors who will make their announcements within the next few weeks. Kerwin Walton, and Dylan Cardwell have already taken their visits. But it was hoped that four-star forward, William Jeffress, has not been to the West End, and it was hoped that. He might set one up for the near future. Tyrin Lawrence was also hoping to set up a visit within the next few weeks.
If there is any good news, it is that everyone is on an even playing field. The same problems that are being felt in Nashville also reverberate from Knoxville to College Station, and everywhere in-between in the Southeastern Conference.
Corey Evans wrote on Thursday morning, "There is a strong chance that the coronavirus pandemic will impact college basketball for years to come."
That was written while all of the conference tournaments were still scheduled to be played without fans in the stands. His assumption about college basketball's future may even ring truer today than it did just a day ago."
Another area of college sports that is going to be negatively impacted is recruiting. Basketball will particularly be faced with some problematic issues.
We are already beginning to see fallout. It was announced in the past two days that the GEICO Nationals, Jordan Brand Classic and the McDonald's All-American Games have been cancelled. This morning, the Nike Hoops Summit was cancelled as well.
The Southeastern Conference office originally cancelled all athletic activities through March 30, but on Friday afternoon the league issued a press release that will extend that window by roughly another two weeks.
"The Southeastern Conference today announced that all athletics activities, including competitions, team and individual practices, meetings and other organized gatherings, will be suspended through at least April 15, due to continuing developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The SEC had previously announced that all competition was suspended until March 30. That suspension of competition has been extended through April 15 and now includes all organized team activities.
SEC athletics programs will cease practices, individual and team workouts effective the end of the day Friday, March 13. Team meetings shall conclude no later than 5 pm local time on Monday, March 16.
SEC member institutions will continue to provide their student-athletes with care and support to meet needs in areas including academics, medical care, mental health and wellness, nutrition and housing as needed."
These precautions will also have consequences in recruiting. The spring is a busy time for player visits in almost all sports. For example, football's spring game is one of the huge days for having recruits on campus.
The men's basketball program will be impacted as much as any sport, and the ripple effects have already begun to be seen.
According to NCAA guidelines, the recruiting quiet period occurs on April 1, followed by the dead period from April 2-9. Another dead period is in effect from April 13-16. After that there will be two evaluation periods in which coaches can get out and watch players at live AAU events: April 17-19 and April 24-26.
The focal point of April's live period is to see prospects play in AAU events. Just about all of the prospects that a Power Five program like Vanderbilt would watch play on the shoe circuits. Earlier today, all three shoe companies: Nike, Adidas and Under Armour announced that they would be canceling April events.
That leaves us to play the waiting game. The best case scenario is that the tournaments in May can still be played, and that the NCAA would move back the recruiting calendar a month. It is believed that part two will happen if part one becomes a reality. But in the present world, who knows what the impact of the coronavirus is going to be in the United States.
The precautions also lead to a ban with on and off-campus visits. In other words, recruits can't take unofficial or unofficial visits, and coaches can't take home visits or go to a prospect's high school. Some visits were lined up for the spring. In fact, 2021 guard, Payton Daniels, recently told us he wanted to come to campus in late March once his high school season concluded. To our knowledge, texts and phones calls between players and coaches can continue.
Vanderbilt is still heavily involved with seniors who will make their announcements within the next few weeks. Kerwin Walton, and Dylan Cardwell have already taken their visits. But it was hoped that four-star forward, William Jeffress, has not been to the West End, and it was hoped that. He might set one up for the near future. Tyrin Lawrence was also hoping to set up a visit within the next few weeks.
If there is any good news, it is that everyone is on an even playing field. The same problems that are being felt in Nashville also reverberate from Knoxville to College Station, and everywhere in-between in the Southeastern Conference.
Corey Evans wrote on Thursday morning, "There is a strong chance that the coronavirus pandemic will impact college basketball for years to come."
That was written while all of the conference tournaments were still scheduled to be played without fans in the stands. His assumption about college basketball's future may even ring truer today than it did just a day ago."
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