It's clear Covid impacted college basketball in a major way.

it's impact is different for different teams, and sometimes that impact is easy to identify and sometimes not

If the tournament selection was today, these team would be out of the tournament:

UK
Duke
Syracuse
Arizona
Michigan State is on the bubble (last four in and that's before their loss today)
North Carolina (on the bubble by some analysts)

at 8-15 Kentucky wouldn't even qualify for the NIT

Cal got in 20 P12 games this season (full schedule) as did/will UW, Furd, USC, UCLA, CU, UA, OSU. Seems like ASU is playing every other day this week and still won't make it to 18 completed games. Despite our blue-tinted rose colored glasses, I think Cal may NOT have been affected by COVID as some of our conference foes (admittedly, games played may not be the ideal metric - but what is?)

BeachedBear said:

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Cal got in 20 P12 games this season (full schedule) as did/will UW, Furd, USC, UCLA, CU, UA, OSU. Seems like ASU is playing every other day this week and still won't make it to 18 completed games. Despite our blue-tinted rose colored glasses, I think Cal may NOT have been affected by COVID as some of our conference foes (admittedly, games played may not be the ideal metric - but what is?)

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I think games played is one metric, but it doesn't impact the rankings much

a good example of a covid impact is stanford beating alabama very early in the season. i doubt that would have happened if there wasn't a covid impacting summer and pre-season practices.

it's clear to me that covid impacted cal, especially in preseason practices. I'm not making it an excuse, but it is a factor. For example, I think Kelly would have come in better shape if it wasn't for late/limited pre-season practices. It's crazy to practice on a tennis court without being able to pass or touch another players basketball.

Also, I think it impacts home court advantage. Since we lost most road games, our W/L would not have changed on the road, but I think one or two of those close home losses could have been a win with Cal fans in Haas

Anyway, I thought there was an unusual number of blue bloods missing the tourney. These teams only miss the tournament once in a blue moon, and for all of them to miss it this year indicates it's an unusual season.

HoopDreams said:

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it's clear to me that covid impacted cal, especially in preseason practices.

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I'd say it impacted our women much worse - they were trying to work 6 freshies into the lineup.

Probably true

stu said:

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HoopDreams said:

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it's clear to me that covid impacted cal, especially in preseason practices.

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I'd say it impacted our women much worse - they were trying to work 6 freshies into the lineup.

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