Alabama basketball’s pursuit of a conference tournament title will feature a limited live audience. The SEC announced Wednesday night that it will conduct the remainder of this week's men's basketball tournament in Nashville, Tenn., with only essential staff, limited family and credentialed media in attendance due to concerns over the coronavirus. Earlier in the day, the NCAA announced it will hold both its men’s and women’s tournaments without fans.
“In light of recent developments beyond our control related to the spread of the coronavirus, including a recommendation from the NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panel, and after consultation with our member universities, we have made the difficult decision to hold the 2020 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament in Nashville without spectators beginning with games of Thursday, March 12," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a release. "Effective immediately, the policy will also apply to other SEC Championship events and on-campus regular-season games scheduled through at least the end of March.
“After conferring with local and national health authorities, we remain confident in our ability to safeguard the health and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches and other staff who will be participating as well as the limited number of family members and media who will be in attendance at the tournament. We regret the inconvenience and disappointment this decision has caused our fans, especially those who have already traveled to Nashville for the tournament.”
In addition, the SEC announced that all regular-season contests in all sports on SEC campuses and SEC Championship events will be conducted with similar attendance restrictions effective Thursday through at least March 30 at which time the conference and its member universities will re-evaluate conditions.
"The health and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans is of the utmost importance," said Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne. "Pursuant to the league's directive, we will restrict attendance at our on-campus athletics events in Tuscaloosa through at least March 30. When additional information becomes available, we will communicate it at that time. That will also include information on tickets that have already been purchased in advance for upcoming events."
As of Wednesday, the Tennessee Department of Health has confirmed nine cases of coronavirus in the state. Monday, Vanderbilt University canceled classes for the remainder of the week and announced it will be suspending all in-person classes until at least March 30.
Tuesday, the SEC announced that it will not allow the media locker-room access during this week’s men’s basketball tournament. Instead, players will hold press conferences in “controlled auxiliary spaces.” In addition, the conference will sanitize the locker rooms with hospital-grade disinfectant before and after teams arrive. Game balls and benches will also be cleaned before and after every game.
When asked Tuesday about what precautions Alabama is taking regarding the coronavirus, head coach Nate Oats joked that he asked not to speak with the media. He then stated that he plans to follow orders from both the administration and team trainer Clarke Holter.
“Any time anything comes up, flu bug… they do all that stuff,” he said. “I guess, pack a few more bottles of Purell or whatever… I’m doing whatever Clarke tells me to do. As the head coach, I don’t have a whole lot of say in any of that stuff.”
The University of Alabama issued a news release Monday advising against any non-essential domestic travel, “particularly to large conferences with attendees from multiple states or locations that have declared a state of emergency due to the virus.”
Tuesday, Alabama point guard Kira Lewis Jr. spoke about the possibility of Alabama having to play behind closed doors in the future.
“We practice in front of no fans, so it’s probably going to be like practice but you’re actually playing a game,” he said. “Everything’s going to be the same, just you don’t hear no fans.”
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Andrew Bone, of BamaInsider.com, is a real estate broker in the state of Alabama.
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