How COVID will affect the Ohio State basketball season

Fall football is already canceled for Ohio State and the rest of the Big Ten. Basketball season normally starts in November though. How will that be affected by the pandemic?

Ohio State basketball has already suffered at the hands of the pandemic. They had their season cut short, as did every other basketball team in America once the NCAA Tournament was canceled last Spring. Unfortunately, the pandemic still might cause issues with this year’s basketball season too.

Basketball season typically starts in November. Ohio State is scheduled to start its season on November 11th. They actually are supposed to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas in November as well. All of those games are still up in the air.

My guess is that those games in the Bahamas will almost certainly be canceled. Travel, let alone international travel, is a problem right now. I would be shocked to see those games still played. It’s a shame too because there are premier programs that are scheduled to be in that tournament.

Coach Chris Holtmann is confident that there will be a season based on what he said to Ryen Russillo on his podcast. But as we have seen in football, things can change very quickly in the world of college athletics. My guess is that most of the non-conference games will be affected.

As far as the conference games go though, they should be fine. Most of those games happen after the new year. There is hope that a vaccine will be available by then. If there is indeed a vaccine, then college basketball might be able to have a tournament next year.

That would be great news for Ohio State because they have a good squad suiting up next season. It would be a shame for Buckeye fans to get robbed of their two most popular sports because of the pandemic.