Nate Oats calls for change in college basketball COVID-19 protocols

College basketball has seen a wave of COVID-19 cancellations the last couple weeks. It’s led to discussions about whether protocols should be changed to avoid cancellations.

Alabama coach Nate Oats is among the coaches calling for change. He argued things are different than last year, when teams had to be ready with contingency plans at a moment’s notice.

“Things have changed,” Oats said, via AL.com’s Mike Rodak. “Vaccinations have come. If people — obviously you’re still able to get it, being vaccinated. But when you get it, how contagious — I’m not a doctor — but some of this, reading what the NFL is changing, their policies are, we may need to look. I mean, things changed.”

Oats went on to further address the vaccination rate across the sport — and outside the sport, for that matter — as reasons to change protocols from last year, when the vaccines weren’t as widely available.

“Now that a great percentage of people are vaccinated, you may want to do something different rather than what you did before so many were vaccinated,” Oats said. “We want to keep everybody safe, we want to keep the virus down as much as you can, but I think you got to play these games, too, as much as possible.

“Life’s got to move on in as normal of a fashion as you can, whether it’s college basketball or just life in general. The economy’s got to move, people need to work, people need to do things.”

Mike Krzyzewski calls out ACC for COVID-19 protocol, testing requirements

Of the notable teams that’s been dealing with COVID-19 issues is Duke, which had to reschedule its game Saturday not once, but twice in a three-day span. The Blue Devils were originally scheduled to play Cleveland State before it was hit with COVID-related issues. They rescheduled to host Loyola Maryland, but that team was then forced to cancel. Duke was finally able to play a game vs. Elon on Saturday.

In addition to the scheduling challenges Duke has faced, Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski and his coaching staff wore face masks on the bench Saturday for the first time this season. That decision came after Duke assistant coach Nolan Smith missed Saturday’s game due to being in the school’s health and safety protocol.

Following Saturday’s game, Coach K met with the media and offered his thoughts on COVID-19 testing in college basketball and the COVID-19 forfeit policy set by the ACC.

“This can get screwy quick,” Krzyzewski said. “It already is kind of screwy. I would personally like to go back, like last year. … We wanted to make sure everyone that we played was tested. We don’t have that mandate now. I don’t like the forfeit thing, either.”