St. John's, Big East react to coronavirus outbreak

By: Troy Mauriello

The coronavirus crisis has begun in America, and it has already had its effect on the world of sports.

Most of the major sports leagues in America, the NBA, NHL, MLB and MLS, have already instituted precautions such as restricting media access in locker rooms, and asking players to avoid making contact with fans before and after games.

The NCAA has also been impacted by the virus, and figures to feature more contingency plans with March Madness in full swing and the NCAA Tournament kicking off next week. Some conferences have already banned fans from attending conference tournaments, such as the Mid-American, while the Ivy League has flat out cancelled its tournament in precaution of the virus.

Over at St. John’s, the Red Storm are scheduled to kick off their conference tournament in what many believe to be one of the “hot beds” of the outbreak in America, New York City. The Big East Tournament is scheduled to get underway this Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, with the Johnnies kicking off the show against Georgetown at 7 pm.

The Big East has arguably the richest history of any conference tournament in the country. Countless memories have been made and countless legends have been born over the past three-plus decades at the Garden.

However, the 38th version of the tournament at Madison Square Garden will likely have a bit of a different, more eerie feel in 2020.

But still, as fear heightens in New York City, the tournament will press on. The conference said in a statement on Tuesday that it plans to move forward with the Big East Tournament from Madison Square Garden from March 11-14.

“We have maintained a direct line of communication with the New York City Department of Health and Office of Emergency Management, who are not recommending the cancellation of large gatherings in New York City at this time,” the conference said Tuesday.

The situation seems to remain fluid, however, depending on how the virus spreads or is contained in the coming days. The Big East noted that it is also in constant contact with Madison Square Garden, the NCAA, professional leagues and most importantly, medical experts.

Like many other conferences and professional leagues, the Big East will limit locker room access to only athletes, coaches and other essential team personnel.

“Members of the media will be able to interview head coaches and select student-athletes in the postgame media interview area. The BIG EAST will create an auxiliary space near the media interview room for a limited number of additional post-game interviews,” the conference continued.

While the St. John’s men’s basketball team is not currently scheduled to host any more games on-campus this season, the University’s Queens campus has also been closed down out of precaution as well. Students just returned from their spring break at the start of this week, but by Tuesday they were asked to return home, with in-person classes suspended until at least March 27.

“Out of an abundance of caution … the University is suspending face-to-face instruction at all locations as an additional effort to keep our community healthy and assist with the containment of the spread of COVID-19,” President Dr. Conrado “Bobby” Gempesaw wrote in a statement earlier this week.

The University will be switching to exclusively online classes through the 27th of the month. With most students at the mainly-commuter school remaining in their homes, the campus will likely look like something of a “ghost town” until then.

One other interesting case to bring up comes with St. John’s and their potential for an NIT bid. The Red Storm almost certainly won’t be playing in the NCAA Tournament next week, but it is entirely plausible they could be selected for the NIT, and could even receive a seed high enough to host a game on campus.

With this situation still a hypothetical at this point, the University has yet to provide clarity on how they would handle a potential NIT home game, should it come to fruition. The NIT will select its bracket shortly after the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.