Yellow Jackets encounter potential changes to basketball schedule

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed one game on Georgia Tech’s basketball schedule, and coach Josh Pastner has been approached with opportunities to play games in bubbles in December. For the time being, Pastner is going forward with the Yellow Jackets’ original schedule.

“We’re planning to play our regular schedule of games,” Pastner told the AJC. “We’re planning to play our first game Nov. 12 in McCamish (Pavilion) unless I’m told differently by our bosses.”

Tech’s Dec. 13 game against Stanford in New York cannot be played as scheduled because the Pac-12 has postponed competition in all sports through the end of December. Pastner said that event organizers (the game is part of a four-game, one-day event put on by the basketball Hall of Fame) are trying to find another opponent to replace the Cardinal.

Pastner also said that organizers of two or three non-conference bubble events have contacted him to gauge Tech’s interest, including one in Houston and another in South Carolina. The Houston event reportedly would include 20 teams and take place in December, as many colleges plan to end their fall semesters earlier than usual. (Tech’s semester is scheduled to end Dec. 8.) Teams could play eight non-conference games, taking the place of games potentially cancelled because of the pandemic.

Pastner said he passed along the information to athletic director Todd Stansbury and Marvin Lewis, senior associate athletic director and the sport administrator for men’s basketball.

“They’re in charge,” Pastner said. “I do what they tell me to do.”

Tech is to open the season against Mount St. Mary’s on Nov. 12 at McCamish Pavilion, though there is some uncertainty over the shape and scheduling of the season. In a statement Monday, NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said that the NCAA will determine by mid-September if the basketball season will start Nov. 10 as scheduled or be delayed.

The bubble concept has taken root at the NCAA level. NCAA president Mark Emmert said that, for holding championship events, bubbles are “perfectly viable in many sports,” in an interview posted on an NCAA Twitter account Thursday.

“Coaches are talking about it,” Pastner said. “Whether it happens is to be determined. But everyone wants to play. So how do we play, with safety being the primary No. 1 thing.”

The Yellow Jackets continue to work out eight hours per week, including four hours on the court. Pastner said he has dutifully followed the athletic department’s guidance on permitting four players at a time on the court at the Zelnak Basketball Center and constantly reminded players to wash their hands, wear masks and practice social distancing. He said that players are taking a mix of in-person and online classes.

Pastner also praised Tech president Angel Cabrera, Stansbury and Dr. Angelo Galante, the athletic department’s chief medical officer, for their leadership during the pandemic.

“Dr. Galante’s the boss (on health matters),” Pastner said. “Whatever he says, we will do.”