‘Dump the COVID testing’ for teams in Final Four, Baylor women’s basketball coach says
The coach of a prominent women’s college basketball team does not believe teams in the Final Four should have to take COVID-19 tests.
Kim Mulkey, the head coach at Baylor University since 2000, made the comments Monday night after her team lost in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament to UConn.
She said the NCAA should “dump” the mandatory COVID-19 testing for both the men’s and women’s Final Four.
“Wouldn’t it be a shame to keep COVID testing and then you got kids that end up having tested positive or something, and they don’t get to play in the Final Four?” Mulkey said in a press conference. “So you need to just forget the COVID tests and let the four teams that are playing in each Final Four go battle it out.”
Mulkey, who coached Baylor to a national championship in 2019, tested positive for COVID-19 in January. When she returned to coaching later that month, she said the NCAA season would continue because of the “almighty dollar.”
“One conference does this, one conference does that. The CDC says this. Everybody is confused. I’m confused,” she said in January, The Washington Post reported. “I’m uncomfortable coaching. I understand, COVID is real. I’ve had it — come talk to me sometime. But I don’t know … all the calls and procedures, that’s going to go on and make it unusual, uncomfortable for every program. We’re no different at Baylor.”
All participants in the NCAA tournaments had to test negative for seven consecutive days prior to their arrival at the tourney sites — the men are in Indianapolis, the women in San Antonio. They each undergo daily PCR tests during the tournaments.
One men’s team, Virginia Commonwealth University, had to drop out of the NCAA Tournament before their first-round game because of multiple positive COVID-19 tests within the program.
The women’s coach for UConn, Geno Auriemma, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 14 and rejoined the team last week. He was critical of the NCAA’s COVID-19 protocols during a press conference Sunday.
“Some of the protocols are absolutely beyond ridiculous I have to say. You got to wait an hour to go down the elevator because only four people are allowed in the elevator at the same time,” he said, according to Yahoo. “Meanwhile, four of the same teammates that just spent the last 45 minutes together. Kinda bizarre right?”
“We’re actually being held hostage just so you can play basketball,” he added.
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 10:39 AM with the headline "‘Dump the COVID testing’ for teams in Final Four, Baylor women’s basketball coach says."