The Long and Winding Road For Spartan MBB

SAN JOSE, Calif. – In an average season, a men's basketball program faces its share of trials and tribulations as they try to navigate through their schedule. Sometimes there are injuries, game postponements, delayed flights, tough losses and a handful of other things than can add to the burden of trying to complete a full season. But when COVID-19 entered the picture last March and forced the cancelation of the 2020 NCAA Basketball Tournament, it was apparent that any semblance of a normal season for 2020-21 had gone out the window. New challenges and hardships never even thought of before were about to take their toil and make what is already a difficult task that much more complicated.
 
And while those challenges made life difficult for programs across the nation, few, if any, programs were impacted as heavily as San Jose State men's basketball. From practicing on outdoor courts, to having games canceled left and right, to relocating to a new state and even having to quarantine in a hotel, the road for the Spartans from San Jose to the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas was long, winding and full of curves. A road that included over 60 days spent in hotel rooms across 15 cities.
 
"Our team has transformed and evolved over the course of this season," head coach Jean Prioleau said. "Toughness comes in many forms and this group has shown toughness on many different levels."
 
Let's take it back to the beginning. In late summer, it was announced that athletic teams could begin practicing for the first time as a group. The problem was that rules set in place by Santa Clara County at the time did not allow for practice to be held inside. So the Spartans had to get creative and with tremendous support from the athletics staff they came up with a plan to transform the outdoor tennis courts into a basketball court. The plan was a success and both the men's and women's basketball programs were able to utilize the outdoor courts to get some valuable practice time in. The first curve was navigated, but the next was quickly approaching.
 
With the season getting closer by the minute, the next challenge was putting together a schedule. With a rule in effect limiting travel to less than 150 miles, the Spartan coaching staff was tasked with trying to find opponents that fit the billing. They did well to muster together a nonconference schedule that allowed for minimal traveling, but a roadblock awaited as their first three games were canceled due to COVID testing issues. Frustrated and eager to finally play a game, Coach Prioleau and staff finally found the opportunity to play a game on Dec.9, some two weeks after they were supposed to begin the season. The "home" game was played at the Santa Cruz Warriors' Kaiser Permanente Arena and resulted in an 87-79 victory over Fresno Pacific. Finally some good fortune was heading SJSU's way.
 
Then the biggest curve in the road to date came into the picture. With the travel rule still in effect, it was determined that in order to get in a proper conference slate the Spartans would need to relocate to accommodate with the rules. On December 20, having just three nonconference games under their belt, SJSU packed their bags for a very, very long road trip. They relocated their entire operation to Phoenix, Arizona at the Arizona Grand Resort where they joined the Spartans' women's team for an extended stay. Here the Spartans could safely create a bubble and host conference games at one of two venues – Grand Canyon University and Ability 360 Sport & Recreation Center.
 
What was hoped to be a two or three week stay in Phoenix turned into a 43-day affair. The Spartans hosted three conference series in Arizona in between road trips to Utah State, Fresno State and St. George, Utah, for the New Mexico series. While basketball was being played, there is no doubt that being isolated from friends and family back home took its toll on everyone associated with the program. From the coaches missing their families to the student-athletes trying to keep up with schoolwork in addition to missing their loved ones, the trip had a major impact on everyone, and for a while, it appeared that the stay would extend all the way into the end of the season. But thankfully another curve in the road changed plans once again, this time for the better.
 
In the final days of January, with some 40 days already accumulated on the road trip, Santa Clara County made a decision that allowed the team to host games inside their home venue again, allowing the Spartans to finally return to the Bay on February 1st. After making the move back to San Jose, the Spartans had just one week to adjust before their next trip, a two-game swing at San Diego State. Upon their return from San Diego, there was a collective sigh of relief from the travel party as the next four games on the schedule were all set to be played in the one location everyone had longed to be in since the beginning of the year – the Provident Credit Union Event Center.
 
But true to the theme of how the season had gone up to that point, things were not that simple then either, as the first two games against Nevada were postponed due to COVID issues within the Wolf Pack program. Now experts at embracing change, the Spartans took everything in stride and readied up for their next opponents, and on February 19, 86 days after they were initially supposed to begin the season there, San Jose State finally played their first true home game of the season against UNLV. Two nights later, they played their second and last home game.
 
With the season's finish line in sight, on February 24th, the Spartans boarded a plane for what was to be their final road trip of the regular season against Wyoming in Laramie. The team landed in Denver around noon that day and bad news struck instantly that there was a positive in the program and that everyone was subject to quarantine due to contact tracing. The two games against Wyoming, as well as the make-up game against Nevada that was set to be their last home game of the year, were canceled. The players and coaches were put up in a hotel just outside Denver and were forced to quarantine with zero face-to-face interaction with each other for 10 days. After a season of moving from place to place, with disappointment and hardships awaiting around seemingly every curve, this was the cherry on top for what had already been the craziest of years.
 
And that leads us to the here and now. The Spartans were released from their quarantine on March 7, and traveled straight to Vegas to begin prepping for their first game of the Mountain West Tournament. With just three days to prepare, SJSU has a tall task at hand to get everyone back focused and ready for their first round opponent, Wyoming.
 
While the challenges and hardships definitely made things difficult on the Spartans, a lot of good has come out of it as well. Being forced to spend so much time together allowed friendships to become brotherhoods and individuals to take on bigger leadership roles. The group has relied on one another through every crazy twist the road has thrown at them and has helped transform a team into a family. And now that family has one more opportunity to play together as they look to pull off the improbable in the Mountain West Tournament beginning on Wednesday.