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Kim Mulkey’s Baylor Bears won’t be part of the Women’s Final Four, but she’s hoping for one thing for the remaining teams: no COVID-19 test.
Speaking after his No.2 seed Bears were knocked out by seed UConn on Monday night in San Antonio, Mulkey advocated that the NCAA stop testing for the Final Four and focus strictly on the basketball.
“After today’s game and tomorrow there are four teams left, I think, on the men’s side and the women’s side,” Mulkey said, uninvited, at his post-game press conference. . “They have to dump the COVID tests. Wouldn’t it be a shame to continue the COVID testing and then you have kids that test positive or something and they can’t play in the Final Four? So you just need to forget about the COVID tests and have the four teams play in each Final Four and go to fight. “
So far, one tournament game has been affected by COVID. A men’s first-round game between No.7 Oregon and No.10 VCU was declared without a competition due to what the Rams said were multiple positive tests in their schedule. The Ducks advanced straight into the second round.
Players and coaches from both tournaments have been tested daily and wear devices that help with contact tracing. On Saturday, there were two confirmed positive tests at the women’s tournament with more than 15,400 administered.
The latest positive result among players, coaches and others working at the tournament was reported on March 22 from daily antigen testing. All false positives are quickly retested using a PCR test, which is considered more accurate.
The NCAA previously said teams need at least five healthy players to participate in a tournament game.
Mulkey herself contracted COVID after coming into contact with a family member who tested positive around Christmas. When she returned to the sidelines for a January game against Iowa State, she didn’t mince words when asked if she was concerned the season would end amid a pandemic .
“The answer is, the season will go on. It’s called the almighty dollar,” Mulkey said at the time. “The NCAA must have the almighty dollar of the men’s tournament. The almighty dollar is more important than the health and well-being of myself, the players, or anyone else.
“A conference does this, a conference does that. CDC says this. Everyone’s confused. I’m confused. I’m uncomfortable coaching. I understand, COVID is real. I got it – come on. talk to me one day. But I don’t know … all the calls and procedures, it’s going to continue and make it unusual, uncomfortable for every program. We’re no different at Baylor. “
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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