Coronavirus and Purdue Sports
That fateful day sports went away
When the Coronavirus news first started being spread in the news I, like many others dismissed it as simply a small occurrence in other parts of the world. I thought that there was no way that this would impact my life in a meaningful way….But then the news started to get worse and worse, cases were spreading across Asia and Europe and it didn’t seem to be letting up. But still, it was across the Atlantic and we were safe here in the US. Then the first cases of COVID-19 started to appear. Slowly at first and only gained steam as time went on. I still wasn’t worried about it but it was becoming clear that this is something that should be monitored and viewed as something to keep in the back of the mind.
When Rudy Gobert was announced to have tested positive for the virus, the next 8 hours is something I will never forget. Almost every major sporting event/league/idea was shut down because it became real. Within 24-48 hours almost all sports were canceled or postponed “indefinitely” which is just a nice way to say that it was canceled. Turning the entire sports world upside down as well as causing every fan to say, “What am I going to do now?”
This also meant that our Boilermakers had played their last game of the year and it was a disappointing overtime loss at home to Rutgers. Not the way that I thought the season would come to an end. After the loss I couldn’t wait for the Big Ten Tournament to start so that we fans could put the Rutgers loss behind us and look ahead at a potential run in the BTT and if the cards fell right, a spot in the NCAA Tournament as well!
But little did we know that there would be no more BTT. At about noon on the 2nd day of the BTT, the league announced that they were canceling the remainder of the tournament due to concerns regarding COVID-19. This meant that there was no chance for more basketball, no more chance at a BTT surprising title, no more chance at the NCAA tournament. It also meant something else, it meant the question as to whether or not the tournament would happen at all. Many pundits began to exclaim on Social Media that there was no way that the tournament could happen with the concerns over the quickly approaching virus. Sure enough, not more than a couple of days later it was official, the NCAA tournament would not be held and that the college basketball season was over.
This did pose an interesting thought in my head though. All of a sudden, there were no sports on TV, there were no new games to watch. What were sports networks and fans supposed to do with this lack of sports entertainment?
I for one fell back on a habit of mine that has been around for as long as I can remember. I LOVE to go back and re-watch old games or highlights of almost any game, especially Purdue games! When I was still a student at Purdue I would get a few curious looks when my friends and I were leaving either a football, basketball, volleyball or any other game we had just watched live in person. They would inevitably ask as all people would, “What are your plans now?”, my answer was almost always the same. I would simply say, “I’m going to go home and watch the game again online!”. This always struck them as odd, we just watched the game live in person! So why would I want to just go home and watch it again? I never really had a good response to that one. I always wanted to go back and watch the games again, whether to see a memorable play, memorable moment or just to remind myself of being in the crowd screaming my head off. I wanted to hear what the broadcasters were saying, how they were reacting to moments I thought were meaningful. I wanted to experience the game again from a new perspective as well as relive the game as I remember it.
Now that I have graduated and moved to Texas, I don’t get the chance to make it back on campus and go to games in person. So to remember what it is like, I will go back and find broadcasts, videos, highlights, or whatever I could find to bring back the memories, to see the highlight dunk, game-winning shot, or just to hear the crowd go crazy in a big game. I never get tired of it, I have found myself before watching the same highlights over and over again, never getting tired of seeing my Boilers play.
New Offseason Series
This habit gave me an idea for a series of articles to write in this weirdly extended offseason. Over the next few weeks, I am going to be writing a series of articles highlighting my favorite games to go back and experience again online when I find myself in the mood. It will include the videos I use to relive these days as well as my thoughts and why I always seem to find my way back to them when I find myself in the mood.The first up in the series will be a more recent Purdue Men’s basketball game from 2020. Keep an eye out for early this week when we take a look back at Saturday, February 8th when the Boilers made the long drive down I-65 to take on that team in Bloomington on a day where the world was focused on the return of Bob Knight to Assembly Hall, as Purdue silently took care of business and extended their win streak over their rivals to the south!
See you then!
