Illinois Basketball Coach Feels Very Safe On Campus

Coach Brad Underwood seems to think his team is adapting well to life on campus during a pandemic. 

No doubt that there might be a little bit of projection in this interview. The Big Ten just announced yesterday that they were officially shutting down athletics for the Fall season. It's not the end of the fight for many parents of Big Ten athletes. Squads of football parents from Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, and other Big Ten schools have loudly voiced their opinion that football should be played.

Brad Underwood knows that if he wants to play a basketball season, where the Illini are projected to be a real contender this year, he needs the image to be that everything is fine on campus.

Underwood isn't the only one. Kentucky coach John Calipari put this up on Twitter today:

I have no doubt in my mind that these coaches really feel the way they say and truly care about the safety of their players and the rest of the student population. I also know that they know college basketball programs have to be viewed as safe and responsible if they want to play later this year.

It sounds like Illinois really does have it together down in Champaign. The saliva testing and same-day turnaround could really be a game-changer for these programs. It looks like they have a handle on keeping the players safe, it's just when you introduce the rest of the student population that you can lose control.

Schools are already shutting down after only being open for a few days. North Carolina sent everyone home for the semester and Notre Dame has sent students home for at least two weeks after outbreaks of COVID right when kids came back to town.