How TCU is approaching the NCAA’s new start date for college basketball
TCU men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon isn’t the biggest fan of the NCAA’s decision to delay the start of college basketball.
The NCAA announced Wednesday that men’s and women’s college basketball seasons can’t start until Nov. 25, which is a couple weeks after the traditional start date in early November.
“I don’t know. Two weeks? Why don’t you just stay with what we’ve got?” Dixon said. “I think it’s going to be much more difficult to adjust the schedules than they realize at this point. Some are more complicated than others, but we’ll jump into it today. We’ll figure out what we’ve got to do.”
Dixon would have preferred the NCAA sticking with the original schedule, or going to a conference-only format. But he’s ready to adapt with what the NCAA has decided for now.
The expectation is for TCU to keep marquee non-conference matchups such as facing Texas A&M at Dickies Arena in early December, as well as hosting Providence in the Big 12/Big East Challenge at Schollmaier Arena. TCU also hopes to keep Colorado on its schedule as the two were scheduled to meet in Las Vegas on Dec. 19 as part of the Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge. Dixon said he and Colorado coach Tad Boyle talked about the game on Tuesday night.
Arguably the biggest scheduling headache for TCU will be the dates the Hall of Fame Classic is rescheduled for in Kansas City. TCU was among the four teams scheduled to play two games at the Sprint Center on Nov. 23-24.
Along with TCU, Cal, Northwestern and South Carolina are the other participants.
“The Hall of Fame Classic is working through options for alternative dates,” said Eric Wieberg, a spokesman for the NABC which runs the tournament. “We hope to have details finalized and ready to announce publicly soon.”
A few preseason tournaments have relocated to “bubble” sites such as Orlando, Florida, but the Hall of Fame Classic intends to stay in Kansas City, Weiberg said.
The NCAA adjusted the maximum number of games teams will be able to play this season, lowering it from 31 to 27. Teams are able to play 24 or 25 regular-season games plus one multiple-team event (MTE). TCU intends to play the maximum 27-game schedule.
Women’s programs can schedule 23 games plus one MTE or 25 games with no MTE.
NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt explained the decision to delay the season, saying: “By Thanksgiving week, the date of Nov. 25, 76% of all Division I schools will have either finished their fall semester completely or released the general student body for in-person instruction.
“The new season start date near the Thanksgiving holiday provides the optimal opportunity to successfully launch the basketball season.”
The NCAA is not allowing exhibition games or preseason scrimmages until the Nov. 25 date. That’s another disappointment for Dixon, who believes those scrimmages are helpful in preparing a team for the season.
“That’s definitely a big loss,” Dixon said. “Those scrimmages and really your first six games of the year are significant. If you look at it, that’s 20% of the season. Obviously with us, and every team, there’s so much turnover every season. ... But we’ll just go and play the best we can.”
Another looming hurdle with the NCAA’s plan is how it’ll handle teams returning from Christmas break. Depending on the state a school is located in and the quarantine restrictions at the time, players may be sidelined two weeks coming back from the holiday break.
That would impact the start of conference play.
“There’s all kinds of questions,” Dixon said. “We’ll see how it goes. I don’t know if this is going to be the final thing. Like with football, there’s going to be a lot of adjustments and changes but this is what we’ve got today.”
TCU is coming off a 16-16 season in 2019.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 11:12 AM.
