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Once John Gillon connected with the nurse over Zoom, he was directed through the COVID-19 testing process. The former Syracuse guard spit into a tube, placed it in a zip-close bag and shipped the package for results. 

Across the country, Gillon’s teammates in Boeheim’s Army and other players in The Basketball Tournament did the same. The test was one of five the players needed to return negative to be eligible for the tournament and is one of several modifications TBT has implemented in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead of hosting games in arenas across the country, TBT will take place this year in Columbus, Ohio. Teams are isolated on individual floors of a hotel, and TBT employees provide or retrieve meals at the entrance. 

But amid the precautions, there are concerns that players —  including Boeheim’s Army — may be out of shape and out of practice ahead of the tournament’s first game on Saturday. 

“I expect, or anticipate, a lot of people having small injuries and things like that,” guard Brandon Triche said. 

With gyms closed for months and basketball hoops temporarily removed, training options have been limited for players. Though Triche has used resistance bands to create daily workouts, some players don’t have anywhere to practice, unless they have a hoop at home like Triche. Gillon’s been running around a track to stay in shape. 

Before last month, Triche only touched a basketball for about 15 minutes a day since he returned home to Syracuse. 

“These guys on our team are like everybody else in this country,” general manager Kevin Belbey said. “They’ve been sitting around on their couch watching Netflix for the last few months and they’re bored.”

Courtesy of Raycom Sports

Though this year’s tournament brings added concern over injuries, Boeheim’s Army has a first-round bye that gives them five additional days to practice at its hotel in Columbus. Courtesy of Raycom Sports

Players are also concerned that inactivity could lead to injuries once TBT begins. Boeheim’s Army lost forward Tyler Lydon due to a right hip injury he sustained two weeks ago, according to Syracuse.com and replaced him with Will Rayman — who shot 35.9% from 3 in his senior year at Colgate and is the only non-SU alumnus in Boeheim’s Army.

As the No. 3 seed in the tournament, Boeheim’s Army received a first-round bye, giving them five days to practice on a hotel banquet room’s makeshift court before playing the winner of No. 14 Heartfire and No. 19 Men of Mackey on July 7. 

Since teams are supposed to stay inside the hotel when they aren’t playing, TBT brought the practice facility to them. Each day, teams have about an hour and a half to two hours of practice time and can’t use the court outside of their designated slot.

The schedule means plenty of downtime for Boeheim’s Army. Triche plans to use that time for recovering, watching TV and talking to his family. For Gillon, it’s an opportunity to practice for the next competition on his calendar: an upcoming Call of Duty tournament.

But logistical issues extend beyond filling players’ time off the court. TBT plans to supply meals to the players for the first few days. Then, head coach Ryan Blackwell expects that the teams will begin ordering their own food. TBT employees will retrieve the meals from delivery drivers outside of the hotel and put the food in a designated pickup area. 

Before players even arrived in Columbus, they had to take two COVID-19 tests. Best Virginia, the West Virginia alumni team, withdrew from TBT after a player tested positive. Jackson TN Underdawgs, a team made up of Jackson natives, was also eliminated after a positive test.

While TBT has ensured that the tournament will take place, there has been less team preparation than past years. Blackwell met with fellow Syracuse residents Triche, Eric Devendorf and Demetris Nichols for practice once gyms reopened, but Boeheim’s Army has met in the past at the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center for a “minicamp,” Blackwell said. 

“Even then there’s not enough time to really get organized,” Triche said about minicamps in past years, “you just go over the plays, you learn them enough and you probably forget them a few times.”

Most teams are predicated on shooters at TBT, Blackwell said, and space the floor rather than deploying big men down low. For five years, it’s the formula Overseas Elite – which represents athletes playing outside of the United States – has used to compile a 29-1 record. Last tournament, it was the formula that sank Boeheim’s Army in the regional final against Team Brotherly Love after a second-half collapse. 

For this tournament, Boeheim’s Army has bolstered its depth with the addition of Malachi Richardson, the former first-round pick and long-range shooter who led Syracuse to a 2016 Final Four run. Mainstays Devendorf and Gillon returned, while Triche — SU’s all-time winningest player — rejoined after last year’s absence. Players who were previously busy with other leagues reached out to Belbey in the past few months, looking for a spot in Boeheim’s Army.

Blackwell believes that five days of practice for Boeheim’s Army, thanks to its first-round bye, will prepare the group for a tournament run longer than the last five years.

“We’re as talented as any team in the tournament,” Devendorf said. “Now it’s just about going out there and putting it all together.”

Published on July 3, 2020 at 11:55 am

Contact Thomas: tgshults@syr.edu | @ThomasShults_