USU hoops “psyched” with start to season announced
Utah State basketball appears to be a go for the 2020-21 season after the NCAA announced Nov. 25 would be the official start date of its collegiate basketball schedule. The announcement produced a “genuine sense of excitement” among the staff and players according to USU head coach Craig Smith — a predictable reaction likely shared by hundreds of Division I programs who now have confirmation of a season.
The players, whose basketball future resided in the NCAA’s decision to approve or cancel the season, had been going through offseason workouts for much of the summer in hopes of an announcement like the one last week.
“It’s been rough with nothing guaranteed,” said USU junior guard Marco Anthony. “But just being able to still play basketball and stay as a team, that does nothing but benefit us and keep us ahead of the curve. So although it’s been rough it’s been pretty good.”
The overall tone of the offseason was one of heavy optimism that the season would be played, with most questions centering around the structure.
“I felt like the whole time we were going to play and that’s what we kept telling our guys,” Smith said. “It was just a matter of getting a finality to it.”
Of course, when the season would actually start was of great interest to the players as well.
“It’s definitely something that we’ve all been looking forward to as a team,” freshman Steven Ashworth said. “Just to know when we’ll be able to have our first opportunity to play against another team and go out there and compete and show what we’ve been practicing for these last few weeks and months.”
The women’s basketball team obviously received the same news and head coach Kayla Ard said the team is “psyched” during an interview posted on the team’s Twitter account. The first-year coach and her players, many of whom are newcomers, are eager to revive a program that won just two conference games last season.
“The news was great,” said junior guard Paris Williams. “Everybody was excited, we got the text from coach (Ard), everybody was super pumped now we can really get it in. We’re excited because we’ve got something to prove.”
According to a press release sent out by the NCAA, teams will be able to begin full practices on Oct. 14 and will be allotted a maximum of 30 practices before the start of the season around Thanksgiving. There are some restrictions on how many hours players can work out in a week or in a single day, but they aren’t much different from the usual restrictions. A transition period was set out by the NCAA, beginning Sept. 21 and ending Oct. 13, that allows for strength and conditioning, team meetings and skill instruction to commence as an additional help to prepare for the season.
“The new season start date near the Thanksgiving holiday provides the optimal opportunity to successfully launch the basketball season,” said NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt in the press release. “It is a grand compromise of sorts and a unified approach that focuses on the health and safety of student-athletes competing towards the 2021 Division I basketball championships.”
— sports@usustatesman.com
@thejwalk67