Penn State men’s basketball is set to hit the court on Wednesday against Delaware State after positive COVID-19 test results within the program saw the Nittany Lions cancel back-to-back non-conference games over the past two weeks.
“There’s no manual for how you handle all of this stuff. Right?” Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry said on Monday. “I didn’t get job and they hand me a COVID manual, or like, an injury manual or all those things.”
It has been a challenge for Penn State’s first year head coach to grapple with what has become the new norm in sports: the possibility that tomorrow’s game might not happen because of COVID-19. A former assistant at Purdue, Shrewsberry is all too familiar with the threat of COVID around every corner, especially as the winter sees a surge in cases both on the local and national levels. At Penn State, the threat of COVID-19 outbreaks saw five games canceled or postponed in 2020 bringing the total to seven games impacted by COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic.
Penn State women’s basketball announced its own COVID related stoppage on Monday.
“Being able to play a season last year, where everybody was kind of on edge the entire season, but knowing that the shoe could drop and something like this could happen… It’s never easy on anybody, but I think our guys have handled it,” Shrewsberry said. “I think they’re disappointed because they want to play… those guys love playing games. They didn’t want to miss two games.”
All things considered canceled contests against VCU and Quinnipiac (which will not be rescheduled) won’t make or break the Nittany Lions’ season, but it has put a wrench in the timetable for getting the likes of once-injured forward Greg Lee back into the swing of things after missing the first nine game of the season. Those two games would have been big for getting his legs back underneath him.
Now it’s a Wednesday meeting with Delaware State at 6 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center and then back into the fires of Big Ten play.
“Greg was a starter for us before he got hurt,” Shrewsberry said. “If he’s healthy, and he’s ready to go he’s gonna play as many minutes as he can, because he competes at the same level as John [Harrar].
“Michigan State [Lee played] 15 minutes, and then going into which would have been VCU probably playing a little bit more, so maybe 20 minutes and then you know, 25 minutes to the next game and kind of amping him up a little bit. We’re using that practice time to do that with him.”
But those practices never happened and as Wednesday draws closer Shrewsberry is still waiting to see who is available while the Nittany Lions go through COVID protocols, returning to campus after the unexpected break.
“Everybody is here at practice,” Shrewsberry said. “You know, they haven’t all been cleared yet. We’re just going through some different things and what they need to do with our doctors. And once we get word from them, then, you know, we’ll go with whoever they clear. And I guess that’s the, the word. You know, I can’t anticipate anything I don’t know. So I just wait until we get word back that says hey, he’s cleared to practice. He’s ready to go. And then we just go with who’s available.”
A familiar tune from a year ago as the calendar changes yet again, this time to 2022.
