Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com AUGUST 2020 43 MEN'S BASKETBALL "Moving forward, I think about who I'm exposed to," Brey said. "If we play a full non-league schedule and we're on the road traveling, how do you stay safe?" Rampant testing is one part of the equation, and Notre Dame has the resources to execute it. Every student must test negative for COVID-19 before coming to campus. The uni- versity is also requiring masks on campus, has an on-site testing center for symptomatic students and has slashed capacity in its dining halls and chapels. Basketball players were sent a kit to administer themselves a test in their hometowns. Brey and his staff were tested the week of July 20. In the meantime, he will be closely watching the football team's ability to ward off the virus during prac- tice. Notre Dame football is a test case for everything else, and through mid-July it had fared well. There had been one positive test among 252 ad- ministered to players and staff since mid-June. The NBA's bubble will be a barometer as well. "I'm really confident moving for- ward," Brey said. "The layer upon layer of protocols with our team and student body are amazing. They're going to be hard to do and we're go- ing to try our darnedest to stick to them and do it. I feel very safe." 'BE THERE FOR THEM' Game-day protocols have not yet been discussed, but practice and workouts will look and feel different. Coaches are likely to wear masks. Brey assumes film sessions won't be done in a crowded locker room. Director of basketball operations Harold Swanagan and trainer Nixon Dorvilien are in charge of setting and enforcing protocols. Both are well versed in the return-to-play manual given to them. Whatever they com- mand is what will be done. The advising process has already started. One week, Brey hoped to re- place an early July lunch meeting with a staff meeting in his office. Swana- gan, though, told him that wouldn't fly. Brey willingly stuck with the plan to meet at Brothers once again. "Just keep telling me what we can and cannot do," Brey said. "I'm sure I'm going to get frustrated and go, 'Wait, we can't do that?' I told them they're going to need to tell me to shut the hell up, and this is how we're going to do it." McCullers has some ideas. If needed, an older coach can operate from a suite during games and use a headset to speak with a younger assistant on the bench. That becomes less important if there are no fans, though. Hopping into huddles in practice or games re- mains one of the riskier parts of the job, as does heading into the locker room for an extended time. Brey al- ready knows his usual in-season and preseason routine will look different. "It's really avoiding close contact, and distancing from the students and everybody," McCullers said. "We have the technology. They should be conducting meetings virtually, shouldn't be down on the floor in the huddle pacing them through prac- tice. Let a young coach do that and observe from the sidelines." None of these steps will entirely erase the risk or consequences of con- tracting the virus, though, especially for those advanced in age. Campuses are home to thousands of students from all over the country who will still have an element of free- dom to attend parties, go to bars, con- gregate in groups and live off campus. Classrooms and dining halls, even at restricted capacities, remain high-traf- fic areas. Universities cannot control every second of their students' lives. The tricky part is all cases may not be discovered, leaving the door open for a spread — seismic or small. "Because young people are very often asymptomatic, you very often don't know," McCullers said. "It's not like you can screen everybody and assume if they're not coughing, it's safe to be around them. "This is what we're seeing right now across the South. It's being driven by 20- to 29-year-olds because many of them are asymptomatic, so they don't think anything of it." Furthermore, Notre Dame's pro- tocols may not be the same as an opponent who has lesser financial capabilities for protective practices or whose university decision-makers prioritized differently. Two hours in- termingling on a court is not a negli- gible amount of time either. But Brey, by wanting to coach this year, feels enough risk is ripped away that the benefit and enjoyment of doing his job outweighs the po- tential harm. At this point, the lone glitch that could make him not coach is a canceled season. "I need to be there for them. I re- ally like our nucleus," Brey said. "It's a group that has gotten some momen- tum back last year and we're trending the right way. We could really be a neat story, these juniors especially. They fin- ished in last place as freshmen. "I'm just waiting for the wave of peo- ple in August and how it plays out. We don't know and we're all anxious." ✦ SCHEDULE TAKING SHAPE Notre Dame's non-conference schedule is done, head coach Mike Brey said. The release date is not known, but it is complete. And it is a challenge. It has five high-major games and two true road outings. "It has to be top three, I'd think," Brey said, recalling the prior 20 non-league slates his Notre Dame teams have played. So far, nine of the maximum 11 non-con- ference opponents or games are known. The remaining two are likely to be home games against mid-major opponents. The ACC/Big Ten Challenge game was not announced as of the July 21 press time. Here's a rundown: • Nov. 11 vs. Army (Brey deliberately sched- uled a service academy on Veteran's Day) • Nov. 17 vs. Eastern Washington • Nov. 20 vs. Liberty • Nov. 23: Legends Classic at Brooklyn, N.Y. (vs. USC, Vanderbilt or Connecticut) • Nov. 24: Legends Classic Brooklyn, N.Y. (vs. USC, Vanderbilt or Connecticut) • TBA: ACC/Big Ten Challenge (likely a home game the week after Thanksgiving) • Dec. 12 at Kentucky • Dec. 19 vs. Purdue in Crossroads Classic at Indianapolis (this date is not official yet) • Jan. 18 at Howard (will mark the first road game for Notre Dame men's basketball against one of the country's Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and will take place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day) — Patrick Engel "I'm really confident moving forward. The layer upon layer of protocols with our team and student body are amazing. They're going to be hard to do and we're going to try our darnedest to stick to them and do it. I feel very safe." BREY ON WHY HE'S COMFORTABLE COACHING THIS SEASON AMID CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS