The shutdown of college sports because of the coronavirus pandemic has impacted nearly every aspect of every college team the last two months. For some programs that meant a disruption to the season and for all it has meant the disruption of the typical offseason routine. Sean Miller would normally be getting ready to welcome new players into his program about this time of year, but instead he has had to play the waiting game like every other college head coach.
His UA basketball team is going through plenty of changes and the sooner he can begin working with all the new pieces that will make up the roster the better. However, there is no clear path to the upcoming season as it stands now as programs have not yet been informed of when a return to action will come.
It has left coaches somewhat handcuffed during this time of year since they are not able to truly have the kind of contact with their players that can best prepare them for the upcoming season. There are limitations set by the NCAA on how much programs can instruct players about offseason workouts meaning coaches are going through this time of year a bit blind.
Eventually players will return and that is what Miller continues to preach to his group.
"At some point we're all going to be allowed to leave our house," the UA head coach said during a video interview with play-by-play announcer Brian Jeffries this week. "This will not last forever, and just hang in there. And and I think now that phase is ending. And really, what we're starting to do is have more direct talks to make sure that that those guys are, A, finishing up academically, that they are, in fact really starting to work towards getting back here this summer and be the best basketball player that they can be as well.
"Each one of them has different resources. We have certain players that they have a basket in their driveway or backyard. We have certain players that had to search out a basketball. Not only do they not have access to a hoop in their own yard, but they don't even have the ability to dribble a basketball. Same thing with weights. You know, we have certain guys who have dumbbells or an in-house setup. We have others that just have to do push ups and sit ups, but by NCAA rules we're not able to keep track of what they're doing. We can encourage them, and certainly we can't tell them what to do because each one of them is aligned differently with like I mentioned their resources. "
Zoom has become a key tool for everyone to stay connected during the pandemic with social distancing and stay-at-home orders forcing people to remain confined to their homes. College programs have had to keep moving forward remotely as well and for Miller communication is has been and will be a key to an easier transition back to normalcy.
"As we move forward, I think we're looking forward to that date whenever it is that we can reconnect," he said. "And I think until then, communication is everything. Our assistant coaches, our staff, our strength and conditioning coach, Justin [Kokoskie], our trainer, team, doctors, if needed. Andy Salgado, who's in charge of our team's academic wellbeing, all the tutors that they have. And then our team communicating with each other.
"We're just trying each Sunday through Saturday to have a communication network where we're talking to each other, to make sure that we're all on the same page as best we can. But it's in our best attempt to be efficient ... we're doing the best we can. That's the truth."
Arizona's season came to an end back in March at the Pac-12 Tournament after the Wildcats defeated Washington in the first round of the event before the rest of the tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The NCAA Tournament was subsequently canceled leaving programs to figure out what their next steps would be.
Miller said initially the concern was the immediate health of his team and staff, but since then the process has moved toward preparing for the upcoming season. Half of UA's roster for the upcoming season will be made up of newcomers to the program.
