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Post by ptctitan on Dec 30, 2020 17:10:53 GMT -5
Is this the HL's way of saying it's sorry for making us play Oakland after the HL ref in the UIC-Oakland series tested positive? Press ReleaseINDIANAPOLIS (12/30/2020) --The Horizon League announced on Wednesday that the Detroit Mercy vs. UIC men's basketball games scheduled for Jan. 1 and 2 have been canceled due to the Detroit Mercy program pausing activities for a week due to the mental health and well-being of its student-athletes. The Horizon League is fully supportive of Detroit Mercy's decision to pause activities and is guided by our top priority: the health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches, and staff. The pause for a week is only for the mental wellness and safety and not at all due to any positive tests in the Detroit Mercy program. To date, no student-athletes or coaches have tested positive. "After talking with Dr. Garibaldi and head coach Mike Davis, we agreed that it would be best to take a brief pause from playing this weekend based on the safety, wellness and mental health of the men's basketball student-athletes," said Director of Athletics Robert C. Vowels, Jr. "The health and safety of our student-athletes have always been and will continue to be our top priority. With the uncertainty of the games being played this weekend and looking at everything our players have had to deal with so far, we decided that it was best for our program to take some time away for mental wellness and we will be back next week, preparing to take on Milwaukee."
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Post by Rogobob77 on Dec 30, 2020 17:30:34 GMT -5
Sometimes I wish we had more the attitude of this Bears team:
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Post by therealcoach on Dec 30, 2020 19:30:58 GMT -5
With the way the year is going, any week that your able to play I think you play. Tomorrow is not promised with Covid-19 lurking in our shadows. I’d bet that it was coach Davis who pulled the plug because he was so upset about playing Oakland. Well he was ok with it until we lost!
I just hope that the next week all goes well, because if not that’s two weeks of no games. Oh well we need the time to practice anyways. Go Titans!
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Post by udballer on Dec 30, 2020 19:59:42 GMT -5
Not COVID? Health and wellbeing? What are we talking about?
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Post by titantarheel on Dec 30, 2020 20:10:40 GMT -5
It’s quite odd as it’s certainly a first that I’ve heard or seen of. I get if it’s covid, but we clearly aren’t saying that so who knows what’s up. I guess we dedicate our energies to rooting for our adopted friends at Carver College!
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Post by bigchuck on Dec 30, 2020 20:25:34 GMT -5
Not COVID? Health and wellbeing? What are we talking about? Maybe someday we will know "the rest of the story"
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Post by dtowntitan on Dec 30, 2020 20:40:53 GMT -5
Something tells me that this is COVID related without them stating so. Hasn't there been players on UIC or in their program who have tested positive recently, or played a game with a positive testing ref? I think between that and the HL forcing us to play Oakland even though they had been exposed the week prior this is our way of saying since you wont protect us we will protect ourselves.
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Post by udballer on Dec 30, 2020 20:46:09 GMT -5
This is just weird. It looks like not wanting to compete.
As a Buckeyes fan who's spent my entire life in Michigan, I can only imagine what would be said if OSU canceled a game for the "health and wellbeing" of the team.
Just odd.
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Post by ptctitan on Dec 30, 2020 20:47:03 GMT -5
If you are interested in knowing the details behind this decision, then read on.
UIC is trying to come off the second pause in its program for positive COVID test results. It experienced positive test results after its series vs Oakland on Dec 19-20 in which one of the refs also tested positive. The positive ref followed by positive UIC players caused us to ask the HL to cancel our series with Oakland last weekend. The HL denied our request just a few hours before Saturday's game. League protocols require a certain number of consecutive negative tests before a team in a second pause can be cleared to play. UIC would not have been able to meet that requirement in time for the scheduled Friday game. The league knew that when it scheduled us versus Oakland for last Saturday-Sunday. As a result, we were left with a trip to Chicago to play one game that depended entirely upon whether UIC's COVID tests taken on Friday came back negative on Saturday. The Saturday game time had been moved back to 7 pm CT in order to give UIC time to get test results. The league could not move back the series one more day because it would then breach another league COVID protocol that requires 5 full days between the final game of one series and the first game of the next series so that at least 3 COVID tests can be conducted. This is why we lost the second date to play Kentucky. The game was scheduled for December 15th and we were scheduled to play Wright State on December 19th. We are scheduled to play Milwaukee at 12 noon on January 8th. This would have required a Sunday game at UIC to finish at 12 noon after a 7 pm start the night before. Our big objection to the UIC trip was making the trip without any certainty that UIC would even be able to play on Saturday night. Also, if we were unable to play the game because UIC was still testing positive, then we could also have been caught up in Chicago's strict COVID quarantine rules and forced to remain in Chicago. This time, the league agreed with our concerns that making the 5-6 hour bus ride to UIC and assuming the cost of entering the required mini-bubble in advance of Saturday without the certainty of playing the Saturday game would not be in the best interests of our players and coaches. Hence, the wording in our press release and in the league's press release announcing the cancellations of both games at UIC.
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Post by udballer on Dec 30, 2020 20:56:50 GMT -5
Sounds like we should have tried to play the game. I think we should be playing games when available... or pulling the plug on the season like Chicago State.
It's going to be a ridiculous season due to COVID regardless. I think you either participate or don't.
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Post by bigchuck on Dec 30, 2020 20:58:59 GMT -5
If you are interested in knowing the details behind this decision, then read on. This time, the league agreed with our concerns that making the 5-6 hour bus ride to UIC and assuming the cost of entering the required mini-bubble in advance of Saturday without the certainty of playing the Saturday game would not be in the best interests of our players and coaches. Hence, the wording in our press release and in the league's press release announcing the cancellations of both games at UIC. The why in the heck did we word it as "The pause for a week is only for the mental wellness and safety..." ? It sounds horrible worded that way. If you are correct, we are not pausing, the games were cancelled due to Covid-19 protocol concerns. We will continue to practice. That would have been a much more palatable wording for the press release.
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Post by calihanmole on Dec 30, 2020 21:15:23 GMT -5
If you are interested in knowing the details behind this decision, then read on. This time, the league agreed with our concerns that making the 5-6 hour bus ride to UIC and assuming the cost of entering the required mini-bubble in advance of Saturday without the certainty of playing the Saturday game would not be in the best interests of our players and coaches. Hence, the wording in our press release and in the league's press release announcing the cancellations of both games at UIC. The why in the heck did we word it as "The pause for a week is only for the mental wellness and safety..." ? It sounds horrible worded that way. If you are correct, we are not pausing, the games were cancelled due to Covid-19 protocol concerns. We will continue to practice. That would have been a much more palatable wording for the press release. Weird. And, out of character for Vowels. He’s usually the master of communication and transparency.
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Post by ptctitan on Dec 30, 2020 21:17:49 GMT -5
Sounds like we should have tried to play the game. I think we should be playing games when available... or pulling the plug on the season like Chicago State. It's going to be a ridiculous season due to COVID regardless. I think you either participate or don't. We have played every game the HL has required us to play. We tried to play Kentucky again and lost that money because Wright State would not waive the HL's 5 day requirement. We tried to play this weekend and had agreed to go to UIC and play just one game at 7 pm on Saturday night instead of two games on Friday and Saturday afternoons. UIC could not give us any reasonable assurance that they would be able to play us on Saturday. They would not know until a few hours before Saturday's game. I believe that we would have gone and risked it if UIC had not had positive test results in its Tier 1 personnel within the last 7 days.
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Post by therealcoach on Dec 30, 2020 21:18:40 GMT -5
If it’s really mental well being, we need to cancel the season. The entire country is stressed out! Lame excuse.
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Post by ptctitan on Dec 30, 2020 21:59:19 GMT -5
The why in the heck did we word it as "The pause for a week is only for the mental wellness and safety..." ? It sounds horrible worded that way. If you are correct, we are not pausing, the games were cancelled due to Covid-19 protocol concerns. We will continue to practice. That would have been a much more palatable wording for the press release. I don't know why the university chose those words. I didn't talk to Vowels for my information on this issue and I have not spoken to him in a very long time. The HL could have dictated the press release for all I know. And I really don't care. It's clear that the university wanted to emphasize that this pause was not due to any positive test results for COVID. You wanted to know why the games were canceled. I gave you the information on why the games were canceled. Have a good holiday weekend.
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