INDIANAPOLIS – By now, Michigan State players may be going a little stir crazy.
They’re going to have to get used to it.
After losing their Thursday Big Ten tournament opener to Maryland, Michigan State players returned to their downtown Indianapolis hotel to wait. They’ll now likely spend at least a week, if not more, nearly entirely confined to hotels as they wait out the period between the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments.
But Tom Izzo doesn’t want anybody feeling bad for him or his team.
“Don’t feel sorry for us, we’re in a hotel, we get food,” Izzo said. “The way my last three, four years went, or the way this year went, this is a piece of cake, this is an opportunity. This is good news, not bad news.”
Normally, the Spartans would return to East Lansing immediately after being eliminated from the Big Ten tournament and await Selection Sunday. But with the NCAA Tournament set to start in Indianapolis next week, the NCAA asked all likely at-large teams from the Big Ten to stay in town through the weekend to avoid contracting COVID-19 during travel.
The Spartans became the first of those teams to settle in when they lost early on Thursday.
As of immediately after the game, Izzo said his team’s plan was to take Friday off from practice, then find a place to hold practices on Saturday and Sunday (he joked those practices may be outside). The team will also be able to hold film sessions in the hotel as they would on a normal road trip.
But unlike if they were in East Lansing, players won’t be able to head over to a gym at their leisure and get up shots. That time could be replaced by more film.
“If we were at home, at lot of guys would get back to working out,” Spartans forward Malik Hall said. “I think it’ll definitely be a lot of film watching and reflection, making sure that we’re ready for anything that happens.”
That may help some players like Joshua Langford, who Izzo thought on Thursday was still fatigued from Michigan State’s stretch to close the regular season of six games in 13 days, despite having two days off from practice earlier in the week.
If Michigan State is selected as for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, it will move from one Indianapolis hotel into another the following day. That’s when they’ll enter what the NCAA is calling its “controlled environment” (not a bubble.)
The hotel will be one of several connected by skyways to Indianapolis’ convention center. The hotels and convention center will be closed to the public, isolating players from to prevent virus cases from emerging and preventing teams from playing in the event.
The importance of staying safe during those hotel stays was underlined this week. Duke, Kansas and Virginia were all forced to withdraw from their respective conference tournaments due to COVID-19 cases. Duke’s withdrawal ended the Blue Devils’ NCAA Tournament hopes and season. Kansas and Virginia still hope to play in the event, but their ability to do that is uncertain.
Eventually, the Spartans will get to leave those hotels, likely to plan in an NCAA Tournament opener. But not before watching the rest of the Big Ten tournament go on without them.
“I would have rather have been playing, but we didn’t play good enough to play,” Izzo said.
"wait" - Google News
March 13, 2021 at 06:04PM
https://ift.tt/2PUMAc9
Michigan State players settle in for long, isolated wait until NCAA Tournament - MLive.com
"wait" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35qAU4J
https://ift.tt/2Ssyayj
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Michigan State players settle in for long, isolated wait until NCAA Tournament - MLive.com"
Post a Comment