Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity was asked what changed between going to bed Wednesday night with the plan to continue playing the SEC Tournament and Thursday morning, when the event was canceled even while Alabama and Tennessee were warming up on the court to play their second-round game.
“What changed is the NBA now has two players confirmed with the virus,” said McGarity, who at the time was still meeting with SEC leadership at the Omni Hotel Downtown Nashville. “So the NBA suspended their season, and we saw a wave of other decisions being made to suspend play in other places. I think the evidence was overwhelming that was what needed to happen and that’s where we ended up.”
That has been what has the events of the past two days so remarkable. Circumstances aren’t changing by the day, but by the hour. At the time McGarity was being interviewed, the state’s board of regents had declared that the University of Georgia, which is on spring break, would resume classes as usual Monday. Two hours later, spring break was extended two weeks.
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For Georgia’s ravenous football fans, the biggest concern about cancellations was probably over whether the Bulldogs’ spring practice would still begin Tuesday as scheduled.
“I have not talked to Kirby (Smart). He’s still out of town. But we’re still planning on it at this moment,” McGarity said.
But that’s the thing. That could easily change in the next 24 hours – or minutes.
McGarity answered some questions for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in Nashville on Thursday before joining UGA President Jere Morehead and the Georgia basketball team for their charter flight back to Athens.
Here’s what he had to say:
Q: How would you describe what you’ve been involved in here the last 30 hours?
A: Well, it's been surreal. Fortunately, we were all together already. You had all your ADs and the majority of your presidents here as it was. So, we were able to meet face-to-face and discuss every issue imaginable. The commissioner (Greg Sankey) did a great job of information-gathering and communicating with other conference commissioners and the NCAA, so we were able to have a lot of information in one place and everybody there to discuss it face-to-face and make informed decisions that were in the best interest and well-being of our student-athletes and fans and everyone involved.
Q: Have you guys decided how championships and NCAA berths and such will be decided with so many events and games being cancelled for such an extended period?
A: All of those solutions will be worked out in the coming weeks. In essence, they'll probably be treated like rainouts. But we haven't gotten into that level of detail yet because what's most important was making a decision on the tournament. We also have our track team in New Mexico (at the NCAA indoor championships). We're hosting NCAA championships next week. So now we're pivoting to other events. We went ahead and suspended, really just grounded, everything until March 30.
Q: What about the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships at the Ramsey Center next week?
A: Well, those are NCAA-directed events, so we're staying in contact with them on that. Christie Purks and her staff are staying in constant communication with the NCAA. Right now the plan is to conduct them without spectators. (Senior deputy AD) Josh (Brooks) is in New Mexico with the team to monitor that situation. There are no spectators there right now, but I don't know whether that will change or not. I'm sure determinations will be made pretty soon on all of those.
Q: What’s next for you?
A: We'll be working the phones. We've got a lot of information to gather and distribute to our fans and supporters. We're just going to try to be a source of information for any questions that they have. That's about all we can do now.
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