Bulldogs expect to have 10 players vs. Fresno Pacific in return from COVID-19 pause
Fresno State is expected to have 10 players available for Saturday’s game against Fresno Pacific, coming out of a third pause following a positive coronavirus tests within the program and contact tracing protocols.
Which 10 will be on the floor is a question — the Bulldogs (1-0) will not share the status of players until game day. But that is one of several unknowns for a team that has not played in about three weeks and has been working players back into team activities as they are cleared, four then two, then two more.
The Bulldogs did not all go out at the same time nor all come back from quarantine or isolation at the same time.
“Certain guys’ condition levels are much better than other guys’ condition levels,” coach Justin Hutson said. “What made us play is I think we’re going to be able to have 10 guys, so if we’re having 10 guys I can sub in and out and we can stay away from long minutes on guys that aren’t in shape.”
Tipoff is 4 p.m. on MyTV53 (Ch. 53.1) and the Mountain West Network and KFIG (AM 940).
One of the players the Bulldogs will have on the floor is Junior Ballard, the Cal Poly transfer who became eligible when the NCAA Division I Council granted a blanket eligibility waiver to all transfers this season.
But the Bulldogs are well behind where they would have been at this point in a normal season — this will be their first game since an 87-47 victory over NAIA William Jessup on Nov. 25, which is another question for a team that has been impacted by COVID-19 as much as any in the country.
A Nov. 27 game at Pacific was postponed while the Tigers were waiting for COVID-19 test results and games against UC Riverside, at Pepperdine, against Northridge and Cal Poly also were postponed.
There were 11 among more than 300 teams in the nation that have played just one game going into Friday.
During the latest quarantine, some players were able to get in some individual workouts. But the majority of team activities was film work and zoom meetings.
Bulldogs have missed 50 days due to COVID-19
“We’re not going to make excuses for our play or our record,” Hutson said. “We expect to go out and compete, but to be very truthful, it’s very hard. It’s extremely hard. We started one week later than everybody else and we’ve had three 14-day pauses.
“When you start talking about missing 50 days that you could be in the gym … some of the things that are being asked, we haven’t even practiced. We like our team. We’re going to have a good team going out there on the floor, but this pandemic year is like no other and our coaching staff is going to have to be patient and all the while not use this pandemic as an excuse.”
The Sunbirds (0-3) have played three games, all in December, losing 87-79 to San Jose State, 110-71 at Cal Baptist and 88-65 to Santa Clara.
“I think it’s good for us — I think it’s very good for us to play somebody who knows what they’re doing,” Bulldogs associate head coach Tarvish Felton said.
“They have a rhythm. They have some game experience, where we’ve only played the one game, so I think that’s a big key for us, a big factor for us, going in and seeing how quickly we can jell because as soon as we get done with this now were looking forward to getting into conference play and that’s going to be a big deal for us to jell as quickly as we can.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 4:40 PM.