COVID-19 creating concerns on, off the court for Husker Hoops

Fred Hoiberg and the Nebraska men’s basketball program were well aware of the fine line they and every other program in the country would have to walk in navigating a season amid a global pandemic.

But even they couldn’t have predicted just how hard COVID-19 would hit their team.

After already postponing two of its previous three games due to at least one confirmed positive test at the Tier 1 level, the Huskers announced on Sunday that 12 Tier 1 individuals, including Hoiberg and seven players, had tested positive over the past 10 days.

Tier 1 personnel are defined as players, coaches, and “any staff member whose job requires close regular contact” with the team.

As a result, Nebraska continued its pause of all team activities for at least another seven days and announced further postponements of this week’s games vs. Minnesota and Iowa.

The earliest that NU would be able to return to action would be Jan. 30 against Penn State, but even that seems up in the air at this point, considering the gravity of the Huskers’ current COVID-19 issues.

That means that Nebraska will have played, at maximum, one game in 28 days. That layoff could extend even longer depending on the recoveries of the 12 positive cases.

Even if the Huskers play Penn State as scheduled, what type of lineup would they even have available? They were already down to 12 available scholarship players, and now seven are in quarantine with COVID-19.

HuskerOnline.com learned that of those seven, at least three were key members of NU’s rotation.

Nebraska also needs to take into account the elevated concerns surrounding Hoiberg’s pre-existing heart condition. In 2005, Hoiberg was diagnosed with a life-threatening aortic aneurysm, which required open-heart surgery and ended his basketball playing career.

Assistant coach Doc Sadler, 60, and special assistant to the head coach Bobby Lutz, 62, are also near the virus’s high-risk age demographic. In the United States, about 80% of deaths from COVID-19 have been in people age 65 and older.

Those are just to name a few, not knowing the full extent of other potential pre-existing conditions within the team.

That’s why Nebraska’s pause could extend even longer, as the Huskers know they have to be as cautious as possible to try and keep an already messy situation from getting even worse.

From strictly a basketball standpoint, every day that the Huskers aren’t on the court together is a step backward in their development as a team.

Remember that, now 12 games and nearly two months into the season, NU has yet to play a game with all of its 12 active scholarship players available. Junior forward Derrick Walker, who could be a pivotal addition to the frontcourt coming off his suspension, has played just one game all season.

The only way Nebraska can get better and snap its current 22-game Big Ten losing streak is by playing, practicing, and gelling as a unified group.

Right now and for the foreseeable future, though, the Huskers can’t do anything but wait.