But we're not in Maui this year.

We are in Asheville, North Carolina.

No, Maui is into Nashville.

And yes, you are looking at the new normal of college basketball, where spiking numbers of coronavirus cases nationwide have caused mortgage aim, cancelations, postponements and playing adjustments than in any other sport.

Even before tipping off the season one week ago, men's teams had over 150 games canceled or postponed women's teams more than 200 on the women's side, preseason number three UConn was benched before its season started, postponing its first four games due to a positive test, just days after head coach Geno Auriemma lamented the difficulty of playing during a pandemic.

I could see this happening every week, One place says, Yeah, we're good to go.

The other cool says No, you're not.

Is there a way to keep it out?

Uh, no.

I don't think there is E because if there was, everybody will be doing it among the men.

Preseason number nine Duke postponed its season opener against Gardner Webb after a positive test within the Runnin Bulldogs program, and Baylor canceled the season opening matchup against Arizona State and the potential showdown with Villanova after head coach Scott Drew tested positive for Kobe 19, Drew joined an ever expanding list of big name coaches contracting the virus, including Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Syracuse Jim Boeheim, Tennessee's Rick Barnes, old Mrs Kurt Davis and Seton Hall's Kevin Willard.

I don't think anybody's been through this.

I'm sure never been through this coach.

This is something new for us all.

Another challenge dealing with state coronavirus restrictions, New Mexico band games or workouts exceeding five people, forcing the University of New Mexico to relocate their men's and women's programs to different Texas towns.

Several tournaments, like the Maui Invitational, have had to get creative to deal with the scourge of Covic.

Bubble Ville at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut successfully incorporated several events and re imagined them as a collective showdown of 45 games in 11 days.

And after Duke pulled out of the battle for Atlantis, tournament sponsor Bad Boy Mowers moved its games from the Bahamas to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a new covert hot spot.

But those tournaments pale in comparison to the biggest moneymaker in all of college sports.

Theme N.

C.

A men's basketball tournament.

All 68 teams invited to the big dance will now be concentrated in one site, likely Indianapolis rather than the previously planned 13 locations in hopes of saving the crown jewels the college basketball season to discuss college basketball's effort to play amidst the pandemic and how they've done so far.

Let's welcome in ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas, J.

How would you rate the efforts of the N.

C.

A to minimize the risk of Cove in 19 transmission so far this season?

I think overall very good.

Uh, there were some challenges early because of the enormity of the problem nationwide and all of the different constituencies that the had to deal with.

But I think overall, to get both football and basketball off the ground and toward an end point, I think the way has done a done a good job.

Now you cover the games in Bubble Ville.

What lessons do you think can be learned from that environment to potentially reduce the number of canceled or postponed games for the rest of the season?

Well, one that that bubbles work.

I mean, you remember Ryan early on, uh, NCWO administrators, whether they be from conferences or from the office itself, were saying that no students on campus, no college sports and they backed off that in a hurry because we're playing without students on campus and then they said No bubbles.

These air amateurs and we are playing in bubbles.

We're playing basketball on bubbles.

All these teams are isolated.

You have teams that are living in hotels and taking online courses and really not leaving their hotel except to go to practice eso We have bubbles now and we're gonna have bubbles going forward because they work.

The problem is, it doesn't fit the longtime narrative about about sort of amateurism when this has nothing to do with amateurism.

It's a multibillion dollar business, and we're going forward with it no matter what.

We're not putting anybody's health at risk, but it's not like there's a differentiation between the paid staff and what we're willing to put them through.

And the quote unquote unpaid amateurs, it's it's all the same.

It's a very interesting point.

Now I have to ask, How did how did that bubble that you were in differ from, say, what we saw in the N b A.

And do you think it's a feasible concept for the NBA NCA tournament?

I think it is feasible.

It wasn't as strict of a bubble as as Thean Ba had.

Where once you're in, you can't go out, you have teams coming and going.

But for example, when I got to Connecticut, uh, to the Mohegan Sun, I was tested right away.

I was quarantined for 30 hours before the test came back, and I could not leave my room the entire time I was there unless I was escorted back of the house to the gym.

So I was in my room or in the gym, and that was it.

That was true of all the players and coaches and anyone involved in the tournament.

So it was.

It was a pretty strict bubble, and it worked out very well.

If you had anybody test positive once you got there, you had to leave.

It happened to a couple teams where they had members of their traveling party usually not players, usually staff that tested positive and because of contact tracing.

They were all sent back, so we had a lot of changes, but but it worked out well and I think it's a good road map for how we're going to see things go forward.

Not necessarily conference play.

But there will be some adjustments there, but certainly for the tournament.

So then you talk about the N C double A tournament.

What's your confidence level?

That we will see the N C.

A.

Men's tournament played the completion.

I'm very confident.

I think we're going to see it in large measure because we have Thio on and I don't mean this is a knock on anything.

But this is a multibillion dollar business and you can't just shut it down there.

Too many lively hoods, too many contracts, too much money changing hands to shut it down.

So it's gonna be played to completion.

But we're gonna have to deal with a lot of disruptions, including disruptions.

Once we get to the tournament, there are possibilities that of the 68 teams that go to, I believe it will be.

Indianapolis is not final there.

They'll be in one city at maybe different venues.

We might see forfeitures of games that's possible.

So when teams lose, obviously they're gonna leave.

But we could see forfeitures.

We're just gonna have to adapt to the circumstances we have and overcome them.

And I think I think everybody is confident that we're gonna We're gonna make all those efforts to get it in.

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