How LSU Basketball Passed the Time in NCAA Tournament Quarantine

Tigers will start preparations for St. Bonaventure after two day quaratnine

Will Wade sent his team a text message on Tuesday night that the Tigers COVID-19 tests had come back negative and were cleared to leave their rooms for the first time in two days. Wade, who likes to be over prepared for most areas in his basketball life, found out just how unprepared he was to sit alone in his hotel room for two days.

His players on the other hand were very well prepared. After Wade sent the text message, a couple of players came out of their rooms with video game headsets on. With two straight days to do nothing but sit in a room, a couple of players had the foresight to bring their Playstations and Xbox's to Indianapolis, where the team will be hunkered down at least through the end of the week. 

"Our players are a lot smarter than I am with all of this stuff," Wade said. "When we got the word out we could come out of our rooms, about four of them came out with headsets on from playing video games with each other. At least three of them brought their game systems and got it hooked up to the TV's. I don' know how they do all that."

The Tigers have been tested twice since arriving in Indianapolis on Monday and upon arrival, the NCAA even gave teams all sorts of "swag bags" to keep the players and coaches occupied for their isolation periods. Included in one of the bags, which Wade has yet to look into, there was a 500 piece puzzle that he knows one of his players has probably dipped into.

"I would imagine if I ask Josh Gray, I imagine he may have taken a crack at this puzzle," Wade said. "That's the type of stuff he loves to do. He loves puzzles so I think he may have taken a crack at it."

LSU's been on the road for over a week now since departing from Baton Rouge to Nashville for the SEC tournament. The Tigers are coming off an emotional loss to Alabama and after a five hour bus ride up to Indianapolis and a two day quarantine, it's fair to summize the players were getting a bit antsy.

So when point guard Javonte Smart found out they could finally leave the hotel room and walk around a little bit, it was very much needed. The team is still confined to the hotel for the most part and even the first floor is blocked off. But teams can reserve outdoors time at Victory Park to stretch their legs a little bit.

"Coach Wade actually texted a few guys that we got negative tests. Once he came in the hallway and said we were able to get out, everybody was shocked and ready to leave immediately," Smart said. "We were ready to get dressed and get over to the gym and get some shots up."

Now that the team is out of quarantine, the Tigers will take the 70 minute bus ride to Indiana's Assembly Hall from their hotel, where LSU will play its first round opponent St. Bonaventure. The Tigers will practice Wednesday at Assembly Hall, practice Thursday and Friday at the convention center in their hotel before heading back to Bloomington for Saturday's game at Assembly Hall. 

"The set up here has been great, it's been well managed and as good as you could ask for with 68 teams in one place," Wade said. "If we're fortunate enough to advance, I'm sure things will loosen up a little bit as they dwindle the teams down, there's more area for movement. Hopefully we're here long enough to figure that out."