In Ivy League basketball, coming to grips with a silent season
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Scenes from Rutgers basketball practice
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Mitch Henderson started playing basketball at age 4. He’s spent Novembers in the gym for as long as he can remember.
Until now.
“I feel very out of place,” the Princeton University coach said. “I haven’t seen the leaves fall off the trees in my entire life. Honestly, I didn’t even know what it looked like.”
The Ivy League’s decision to cancel winter sports due to the coronavirus pandemic, the lone Division I conference to do so, leaves gym rats like Henderson in no-man’s land. They’ll be watching from the outside as college basketball readies to tip off Wednesday despite outbreaks that have placed numerous programs on two-week pauses.
NCAA: Ivy League cancels fall, winter sports; delays spring
Kemari Reynolds knows the feeling. The former Manchester Township High School star, now a freshman with the University of Pennsylvania women’s team, spent the springtime shutdown playing hoops in the driveway with her older brother — Seton Hall guard Shavar Reynolds. On Friday Shavar and the Pirates are scheduled to tip off at Louisville, assuming they come out of their current COVID-19 pause in time. Her season is over before it started.
“I’m very proud of my brother, how far he’s come,” Kemari said. “But something in me is like, ‘Oh my God, I should be playing, too.’ It’s definitely emotions running high.”
At Princeton, ‘gut-wrenching’ goodbye
Henderson is not second-guessing the Ivy League presidents.
“I am very supportive and understanding of our decision here,” he said. “Still, it’s just really hard. Not getting a chance to coach the seniors, it’s gut-wrenching.”
The Ivy League is making some adjustments to its typically strict eligibility rules, allowing an extra year for athletes who’ve lost a season due to its shutdowns. But the particulars are left up to the individual institutions.
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Princeton, for example, will not allow postgraduates to play. So seniors Ryan Schwieger and Jerome Desrosiers, two key players, are entering the transfer portal (Schwieger, who is 6-foot-7 and shot 37 percent from 3-point range and 88 percent from the free-throw line last winter, could have some high-level suitors). But fellow senior Elijah Barnes, a Mater Dei Prep grad and Freehold resident, took this year off from school (a gap year, in Ivy parlance) so he can suit up when he returns for the 2021-22 academic year.
“The thing I miss more than anything else is being able to see my guys in person,” Henderson said. “Those relationships are what makes this job special.”
Henderson hasn’t seen his team since March, although he’s encountered some players who live in the area. If all goes well — he’s hopeful that campus will re-open during the spring semester — the severance won’t reach a year. A year without being able to coach your players — it’s almost inconceivable at the Division I level.
In the meantime, he’ll be tuning in like everyone else to see how the rest of college basketball navigates the pandemic.
“There will be games; there also will be cancellations and I think it’s going to be a little bit rocky,” he said. “I’ll also say any time I’ve tried to predict things I’ve been really humbled.”
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A freshman waits and watches
The last time Kemari Reynolds put on a uniform was March 11. She posted 12 points, four rebounds and three assists as Manchester beat Manasquan 58-38 to advance to the NJSIAA Group II championship game.
Then the world shut down.
“It was so devastating,” she said.
Women’s college basketball: Outlooks for the Top 25 teams in the USA TODAY Sports preseason poll
Penn’s campus remained closed. She takes classes remotely at her Manchester home and drives to Philadelphia maybe once per week for pick-up games with teammates who live near the campus. They do online conditioning together with a strength coach three times a week.
“It’s definitely been a ride,” Reynolds said. “I believe God has a plan for me, but it has been stressful at times. You think you’re going back and they’re like, ‘No, you can’t.’”
The highlight of her offseason was battling her brother one-on-one in the driveway (she claims she got the better of him). But now he’s on campus, getting ready to put on the uniform. She’s not.
“It’s definitely a change,” Kemari said. “I would be in college playing right now. I respect the Ivy League’s decision, but I’m going to keep pushing. I’m going to keep training and practicing.”
She’s be visualizing the Palestra, the “Cathedral of basketball” that Penn calls home. Eventually she’ll trod that hallowed ground, where the bleachers rattle like thunder when the Quakers score. For now, it’s a silent season.
“I’m going to make sure I stay on my toes,” Reynolds said. “I can’t wait to play.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: In Ivy League basketball, coming to grips with a silent season