Three weeks ago, Estonian point guard Kerr Kriisa was playing national team basketball games in his home country, a place so comfortable with its coronavirus situation that 1,500 fans were allowed in the building.
But just as the Arizona freshman arrived on campus last week, the Pac-12 was pushing the college basketball season back from November to at least January because of uncertainty about the pandemic, and any sort of basketball workout was out of the question.
Kriisa and the eight other Wildcats who reported to Tucson last week were scheduled to undergo coronavirus tests upon arrival, then expected to spend seven days in isolation before they could do anything on campus.
If they tested negative, the Wildcats were to begin limited conditioning and strength workouts this week, though on Monday, Arizona’s practice facilities at the Richard Jefferson Gym remained closed.
Meanwhile, the upper concourse of the Wildcats’ home arena, McKale Center, was being occupied for — what else? — coronavirus testing.
So games with fans? Not even on the radar at this point.
But at least all that extra time has given Kriisa a chance to get acclimated to his new home.
“Sheeesh!” Kriisa tweeted last Friday. “Its like hot hot.”
At the same time, Kriisa also tried dealing with that heat by soaking up a little more Tucson culture: On another tweet, Kriisa posted a picture of a large Eegee’s drink.
“Appreciate for the advice!” Kriisa posted, with responses from followers suggesting he eat the icy drink with a spoon and maybe try a Sonoran hot dog next.
Maybe it’s not all bad for Kriisa and the Wildcats in basketball terms, either. Only three of Arizona’s 13 scholarship players for 2020-21 have previously played games for the Wildcats (not counting Brandon Williams, who is not expected to play for UA next season) so the extra long offseason may give them extra time to grow together.
Once they can all get together, that is.
While nine of UA’s players have reported to Tucson, Turkish guard Tibet Gorener, French power forward Daniel Batcho and Lithuanian twins Azuolas and Tautvilas Tubelis are still in their home countries, sorting out visas and other issues.
Daniel Batcho, right, is still sorting out issues in his home country of France before he can join his teammates.
All of them are still expected to be in Tucson by the start of fall semester classes on Monday, according to Ryan Reynolds, UA’s director of basketball operations.
Brent White, UA’s vice provost for global affairs, said last week that he hadn’t heard of any major problems with international students getting cleared to return, though many of them have opted to stay in their home countries and take classes online or at a UA global campus site because it wasn’t practical to return to Tucson.
Basketball players, of course, had to return. But for what, exactly, remains to be seen.
Normally, the Wildcats would begin full-team drills shortly after school begins but this year they are expected to start with only strength and conditioning drills, with actual basketball probably not beginning until next month.
“At the beginning, it will look like football (workouts so far) in the sense that you isolate for a week and then get into strength and conditioning stuff,” Reynolds said. “That’s in small groups where guys aren’t interacting with each other. They kind of have their own station. … and then eventually it’ll move into small group workouts.”
Along the way, Reynolds said, UA doctors and athletic trainer Justin Kokoskie will determine when the Wildcats can move to the next phase.
Reynolds said Monday that it is possible the Wildcats could move into some sort of basketball work by next week, but even then it will be different.
“It won’t look like normal (workouts) because only one guy will be at the basket,” Reynolds said. “It’s really hard to predict how it’s all going to play out. Kind of depends on what’s happening nationally and what’s happening here in Arizona, and how’s the testing going on your own team. It’s really day-by-day and week-by-week.”
