Mike Brey put together a 27-game schedule for Notre Dame under no delusions that all of them would be played.
Stack it with formidable opponents and just hope to get as many games in as possible, he thought.
Four days before his season starts, one is already off the slate.
Notre Dame will not host No. 12 Tennessee on Dec. 4 due to positive tests within the Volunteers’ roster and coaching staff, the team announced Tuesday. Head coach Rick Barnes, 66, is among the multiple positives that forced a pause of all team activities and cancellation of its first two games as of Monday.
A day later, Tennessee’s trip up to Indiana to play Gonzaga in Indianapolis on Dec. 2 and Notre Dame in South Bend was also axed when the pause window was extended through Dec. 5. Brey said on a Tuesday morning Zoom call he offered to move the game back a day or two, but that became not feasible with Tennessee’s layoff extension.
The NCAA recommends a 14-day quarantine for the entire program if a member of its “Tier 1” personnel – or any opponent who played that program in the last 48 hours – tests positive for COVID-19. Tier 1 consists of players, coaches, trainers, medical and equipment staff, and officials. The ACC, though, has devised a way around it to a degree.
All ACC men’s and women’s basketball teams will wear GPS technology in practice and games to more specifically measure exposure to teammates who test positive. They’ll measure distance from infected players and duration within 6 feet.
“The contact tracing is the real tough thing to manage,” Brey said. “We will be in those. I’m not sure when. Those are coming and those will help us with the contact tracing.”
Notre Dame has practiced and coached in masks since starting preseason work. Brey also said the team may use some new in-game measures to reduce time spent in close quarters.
“Why do we need to be in the locker room before the game in tight spaces?” Brey said. “There’s no one in the gym anyway. If we need to talk, we can just huddle up around the bench. It’s not like it will be loud, crowded or people can hear what you’re talking about. I’m just going to be sitting on the bench an hour before the game. Are we going to go in at halftime? Do we need to go in at halftime?
“We already practice with the spaced-out benches. When I talk to the team, I don’t really huddle with them anymore. I rarely get them around me. They sit in their spaced-out seats, kind of how you saw the NBA benches in the bubble. They’re just like the NBA benches – front row, back row, spaced out. They sit there and that’s how I address them. That’ll be timeouts. In timeouts, we used to huddle in chairs. We’re not doing that. That’s too close. It’s a different way of thinking.”
Attendance at home games at Purcell Pavilion will be limited to guests of players and coaches of both teams, Notre Dame said Monday.
Notre Dame’s season opens Saturday at Michigan State (8 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network). The Irish’s home opener is Dec. 2 against Western Michigan. With Tennessee now off, their next game is Dec. 8 at home against Ohio State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, though Brey said before the cancelation he would consider adding a replacement game if it was later called off.
The entire Notre Dame roster was tested Monday, Brey said, and all results were negative. They will test again Wednesday, Friday and pregame Saturday in East Lansing, Mich. The plan is to travel to Michigan State on Friday by bus.
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