AUSTIN — Texas coach Shaka Smart understands how precarious sports are in the COVID-19 era. It’s not until pregame warmups and player introductions wrap up that he allows a brief exhalation of relief.
“I think when it's like five minutes before the game, I say to myself, ‘Alright, we get to play, we're actually gonna play this game. This is phenomenal,’” Smart said.
But even the clearance of COVID-19 protocols “doesn't guarantee that you know everything is 100 percent safe,” Smart added. “And that's the complexity of this whole time period and the existential question of should we be doing, you know, a lot of the things that we're doing, which I'm not weighing in on. I'm just saying it's complicated.”
Last Saturday in Morgantown, W. Va., Texas guard Andrew Jones provided another rapturous moment both for himself and the program. A leukemia survivor, Jones drained a game-winning 3 to deliver No. 4 Texas a 72-70 win over West Virginia, preserving the Longhorns’ tie with No. 2 Baylor atop the Big 12.
Two days later the Big 12 announced Tuesday’s game between No. 13 West Virginia and Baylor was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols within the Mountaineers’ program. And on Tuesday morning the conference announced West Virginia’s games against TCU (Jan. 16) and Oklahoma State (Jan. 19) have also been postponed.
While Texas hasn’t announced a delay of Wednesday’s home game against No. 15 Texas Tech (10-3, 3-2), at which fans won’t be allowed, nothing is certain until the opening tip goes up.
“When something like that happens the medical people communicate with each other,” Smart said Monday. “The first thing they do is they look at close contacts, the way that that's defined. And they look and see what close contacts occurred.”
Every team in the Big 12 utilizes tracking technology designed by German company KINEXON, which uses lightweight wearables called “SafeTags” to accurately measure the distance and duration between users.
The “SafeZone” technology is wristwatch-sized, slight enough not to be a nuisance but powerful enough to relay considerable amounts of data to be downloaded and pored over. The devise “precisely measures the distances between users at a rate of once per second,” according to the company’s website.
“You know everyone in the Big 12 is using this technology that tracks how many minutes and seconds you're within six feet of the other person,” Smart said. “So everyone in their group, everyone in our group had those devices on so, that kind of gives you some feedback how much time people are in close contact.”
Texas forwards Kamaka Hepa and Royce Hamm have already had to miss games this season due to COVID-19 protocols. The Big 12 also postponed a Dec. 13 game between Texas and Baylor while the Bears dealt with their own coronavirus issues, and a Dec. 29 home game against Texas A&M-CC was canceled as the Islanders paused team activities.
“Every game, the day before the game or the day of the game, we get a text,” Smart said. “And hopefully that text says, everyone was clear, everyone was negative on their test, we're good to go. And we've gotten a couple of texts that didn't say that, and those were games earlier this season that were canceled.”
Texas Tech had a Dec. 3 matchup against St. Johns’ canceled due to coronavirus concerns from the Red Storm. Otherwise, the Red Raiders have been fortunate in avoiding COVID-19 outbreaks among players and coaches, though the school’s football team was forced to close after nine members of the staff tested positive.
For now, what should be a compelling Wednesday night matchup between the Longhorns and Red Raiders is still on. But until both teams jog out onto the court and get through warmups, nothing is certain.
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