Basketball changed forever in post-shutdown world

INDIANAPOLIS – The irony wasn’t lost on Fred Hoiberg.

Following his main podium interview at Big Ten Basketball Media Days on Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the third-year Nebraska head coach made his way over to his reserved table for the side podium media session.

Hoiberg’s table was set almost on the exact spot as the last time he was in that arena – back at the 2020 Big Ten Tournament, when he was escorted off the court and taken to the hospital as the sports world shut down due to COVID-19.

“That is the same spot, isn’t it?” Hoiberg said. “I’ve never been so happy to have the flu in my life than I was that night.”

While Hoiberg was eventually diagnosed with influenza A and not COVID as initially feared, he still looks back on that night of Mar. 11, 2020, as the turning point when college basketball – and life in general – changed forever.

When the Huskers finally returned to action that next season, everything was different about the sport to which Hoiberg had devoted most of his life.

Daily testing, quarantines, Zoom calls, and general isolation defined the first half of Nebraska’s 2020-21 season. Then the team shut down activities altogether for three weeks due to a COVID outbreak.

When the Huskers returned to action, they ended the year with a brutal stretch of 14 games over just 29 days.

The good news for NU was that despite that adversity, they came back with a relatively typical offseason and upcoming ’21-22 schedule. But while it may seem like things have returned to the way they once were, Hoiberg still wonders if his sport and profession will ever be “normal” again.

“I don’t think it will ever be the same. I really don’t,” Hoiberg said. “When guys wake up and aren’t feeling well, we keep them away and make sure they go get a test right away. We’ve had players who have missed practices, not a lot, but three or four times where we’ve kept guys home and made sure they got tested.

“Thankfully, they’ve all been negative to this point. But now you’re dealing with allergies; you’re dealing with colds, you’re dealing with strep throat going around. We’re taking a cautious approach because we don’t want to go through what we did a year ago.”

Because of the availability of rapid COVID testing, Hoiberg wasn’t necessarily concerned about players having to miss games or practices due to delayed results. But even with the precautions the Huskers are taking to avoid a repeat of last season, Hoiberg knows that nothing is a certainty in the post-shutdown world.

Hoiberg said 100 percent of his program was fully vaccinated for COVID-19, and there was little, if any, resistance from his players to get the vaccine.

“I’m grateful that our guys all bought into getting the vaccine just to add that extra layer of protection, and hopefully, we don’t have to go through what we did a year ago,” Hoiberg said.