The 2020-21 USC men’s basketball schedule release is imminent. Here’s what we know
The South Carolina men’s basketball team is in “deep conversations” with an unnamed school to schedule a home opener in Columbia for Nov. 25, head coach Frank Martin said Tuesday.
With practice set to start Wednesday, the Gamecocks have yet to publicly announce a 2020-21 schedule. But the home opener, once approved, should be the final piece of the non-conference slate, Martin said.
“As soon as that name is on the contract, the schedule’s done, and I’m pretty sure that will happen today,” Martin said in Tuesday’s news conference. “I would anticipate that, because of the proximity to the beginning of the season, all of that will take place faster rather than it has in the past, and we should have (a schedule) out by the latest early next week.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA pushed the opening date of the men’s and women’s seasons from Nov. 10 to Nov. 25, while the Southeastern Conference moved up the start of conference play to Dec. 29 and Dec. 30 to allow room for makeup games in the spring.
Men’s teams can only play up to 27 regular-season games, with the NCAA reducing the maximum number of games by four. The NCAA Division I Council recommended teams schedule a minimum of four non-conference games.
National college basketball reporter Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports reported that South Carolina would host Clemson on Dec. 19, but that game has not been officially announced by either school.
It is not yet clear how or if college basketball teams might emulate the bubble set up by the NBA, which just ended its season with a Lakers championship. Martin told The State in August that he’d be open to neutral-site bubble tournaments but seemed less enamored with the idea Tuesday.
“Too many people started putting out all these fake scenarios about bubbles and all this other nonsense the whole summer. It was all garbage,” Martin told reporters. “That wasn’t coming from anywhere. It’s wasn’t coming from anyone who said ‘basketball’ next to their name.”
Still, Martin reiterated that safety comes first for his athletes and that COVID-19 regulations have factored heavily into putting together the schedule.
“It’s not just the traveling, the hotels and the buses and the planes,” Martin said. “You have to make sure you’re going to go play against people who are being tested, too. We’re spending a gazillion dollars on testing our athletes, and (the last thing we need) is we play a school who never tests anybody — which by the way does happen — and now our guys get infected and now we pop on our own testing and we’re withheld.”
As for spectators, Martin said that he would like for fans to be able to attend games, but ultimately that decision won’t be his to make.
“I go back and forth on that a whole lot because the fans don’t really impact us,” Martin said. “We’re not going to get sick because there are fans at the games. It’s the fan-on-fan exposure … that’s where the concern’s at.
“I think we should have fans at the game. How many? I kind of leave that out there. I know this: People are allowed to go to bars. People are allowed to go to restaurants. People are allowed to do all kinds of stuff, but don’t go to a sporting event? That’s a major problem. That’s where I get confused ... But I hope we have fans. I really do.”
