NCAA Basketball: 5 biggest offseason takeaways heading into 2020-21 season
By Ben Dickson
After the longest offseason, NCAA Basketball fans have endured, we are only a little over a month away from real games being played.
March 12th, 2020 will forever be known as the day the college sports world stood still. Just as conference tournaments were heating up, the COVID-19 pandemic took the United States by storm. It seemed as if everything, not just sports, was put on pause.
With only five days left before what would have been the start of the First Four in Dayton, the 2020 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament was canceled.
It has been an arduous journey for college basketball fans since then, filled with uncertainty and doubt. Despite not having a concrete schedule just yet, real games will be played and the season will commence on November 25th.
This season will look different, of course, just as the resumption of every other sport around the world has. The NBA and NHL finished their season in bubbles. The WNBA held their whole entire season in a bubble. Major League Baseball played a 60-game sprint with newly implemented rules just for this season. COVID-19 has had an unprecedented and completely unforeseen impact on the sports world.
No matter what this season looks like, college basketball fans around the nation are stoked that their game is returning to the hardwood this Thanksgiving. Let’s dive into the impact the offseason has had on this upcoming year.