Kansas AD Long says No. 1-ranked hoops team will be honored: ‘What is the best way?’
Kansas athletic director Jeff Long says he and coach Bill Self will devise a way to honor the 2019-20 Jayhawk men’s basketball team, which went 28-3, won the Big 12 regular-season title and secured a No. 1 ranking in the final AP and USA Today coaches’ polls.
That team, of course, was expected to be named the overall No. 1 seed in the 2020 NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday. Instead, there was no Selection Sunday, no NCAA Tournament. March Madness was canceled 11 days ago because of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a special team ... worthy of being recognized, and you can expect that we are going to recognize them appropriately come the beginning of basketball season,” Long said Monday in a 30-minute conference call with reporters.
“Coach (Bill) Self and I are not ready to share what that might be. We are still really working through that. What is the best way? What is the most appropriate thing? We know they were a special team poised for a great run. They will be honored and honored appropriately,” Long added.
NCAA infractions case continues
Long said that the NCAA infractions case against KU, which includes five Level I violations involving men’s basketball, has not been put on hold by the NCAA at this point.
“We have been in communication. As of this point there is no delay,” Long said. “We are still expecting the response from the NCAA on our NOA (response, which was sent to the NCAA on March 5). That is still coming. That’s 60 days since we submitted our response to the NOA (when an NCAA response is due). We have no information at this time that that process has changed at all. The timeline remains the same.”
A hearing between KU officials and NCAA infractions committee members will be scheduled after KU receives the NCAA’s reply to KU’s March 5 response.
“Could that hearing be conducted through a Zoom video call (because of coronavirus social-distancing)? I have not heard that. Certainly I guess that remains a possibility,” Long said.
Several athletes on campus
KU basketball players Udoka Azubuike and Silvio De Sousa, who are from Nigeria and Angola, respectively, are two of “74 or 75” KU student-athletes that have remained on campus despite the fact that all classes have moved online.
“Those who are on campus or in the Lawrence area … we have dining halls that are still open. They can get carry-out from those halls,” Long said. “They will continue to be able to feed themselves. Their scholarships continue, because obviously they have rents to pay. Obviously we take care of educational expenses through the university. They will continue to get their checks (stipends allowed by the NCAA). They’ll get all of that as we continue through this academic year.”
Long noted that the athletes who are in Lawrence — or in their hometowns — are still receiving tutoring online and are receiving instruction from trainers about how to stay in shape. There are mental health professionals available to help with any anxiety over coronavirus or other issues the student-athletes may have.
“I only know of one or two student-athletes who have been tested (for the virus) on our campus because they have shown signs or whatever. Those were negative, to my knowledge,” Long said.
“I am not aware of any staff or coaches who have tested positive, nor am I aware of anyone who has symptoms we are monitoring.
”If you think about basketball and the Big 12 championships, we have not reached the 14-day period since that tournament (ended) yet. We are still watching that through our communication process. We’ve asked all our coaches, staff and student-athletes to report to us if they are starting to show symptoms, and then obviously if they go to be tested, if they tested positive.”
Facilities have been shut down
KU’s facilities are closed to athletes and coaches and have been closed for some time.
“On March 15 … we kind of got in front of the curve, in my opinion,” Long said. “We closed our offices through March 31. That was really a leading edge decision at that time.
“Again I felt health, safety, well-being of our student-athletes was first. To keep coaches from going to the office and possibly spreading the virus, we’ve kept them home. We have thoroughly cleaned our facilities inside and out.”
Coaches were allowed to enter their offices for a limited time Friday. That might be allowed at some point again, considering Douglas County’s shutdown of all nonessential services has been extended to April 23.
“We sanitized again when they left (Friday),” Long said. “They are working at home. We are being very cautious.”
No layoffs at KU
Long said despite the fact there are no spring sports, employees are being paid.
“Like other companies and government (agencies) we have extended our part-time employees through the remainder of this academic year,” Long said. “Even if they were part-time grad assistants, events workers for events we are not having. We are going to continue to pay them through this academic year.”
As far as possible athletic department layoffs if this situation extends into the summer and next school year:
“We will have to look into the future,” Long said. “We are doing some exploratory cutting. What would a 10%, what would a 20% cut in our operations look like? We have just started those (discussions) as part of our strategic planning for the future. We haven’t made any decisions. Most of that is determined how far and long this crisis lasts.”
He said deadlines will be extended for fans to purchase football season tickets. And he said he’s confident Williams Fund donors will continue to support the program with donations.
“They have always been great. They have stuck with us through thick and thin through the years, through other economic downturns,” Long said of KU’s fans.
Football talk
It’s vital to the overall KU budget for football to be played this season. Spring football has been canceled by the NCAA.
“It is a big blow,” Long said. “One thing we have in coach Miles (Les) and his staff (is) they are great coaches who develop student-athletes. We may be getting 3-stars. We develop into 5-stars. Not having spring ball will be setting us back.
“We are looking nationally at how that will be handled, whether there is a possibility of being able to come back and have some kind of spring practice in June, maybe an extension of the preseason going into August. Maybe there are additional days added on that end.
”There is some question (nationally) about the September football season starting off (or not). We’ll have to adjust to that. We all know that competitively and preparing our student-athletes is very important so we’ll be looking to get some extension of time our coaches can practice with student athletes prior to next season.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Kansas AD Long says No. 1-ranked hoops team will be honored: ‘What is the best way?’."
