LSU Coach Paul Mainieri Says "Perspective" the Word to Keep in Mind After SEC Suspends Athletic Events
Perspective. That's the word LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri told his players when it was announced that their college baseball seasons would be delayed.
As Thursday morning slowly progressed, the writing on the wall became painfully clear. The SEC announced at around 11 a.m. that all athletic events would be suspended until March 30 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
"I think that's the most important word is perspective. There's a lot more important things in the world than college baseball," Mainieri said. "So you're going to your families and your friends and loved ones, you've got to look after each other and hope everybody gets out of this healthy."
With it being three weeks until the next chance LSU can suit up for another game, Mainieri sent his players home so he could think about what the next steps are for the 12-5 Tigers.
"I told the team to take the day off, and let me kind of gather my thoughts about how we're going to do it," Mainieri said. "We're allowed to practice and of course we will, how frequently and how we're going to practice, I have to meet with my staff and come up with a plan, assuming that we're going to be playing on March 31.
"Again, like I said, I think we got a lot more problems to worry about whether or not we're playing college baseball the SEC."
With what happened with the NBA on Wednesday night, Mainieri said he could certainly see a situation like this carrying over to the SEC.
"I figured if they could do it in the NBA, they certainly could do it in college athletics as well," Mainieri said. "So I didn't know when it might happen, but I figured it would just take one baseball player in the SEC to test positive to shut it down."
Mainieri said the players were pretty shocked about the most recent developments after just last night it was revealed that games would continue but with no spectators.
"I know if I was in their shoes, I would be in a state of shock. I'm in a state of shock as a 62-year-old coach who's been in the business for 38 years," Mainieri said. "You know, these kids get four years, many of them do three years. It's got to be a shock to their system but we're all disappointed."
While the last 24-hours have certainly been some of the most unique in sports history, Mainieri did reiterate there are more important things than SEC baseball and that the sooner this is handled, the sooner things can get back to normal.
"This is a crisis that is unprecedented in my lifetime and it needs to get under control," Mainieri said. "We care about our loved ones, we want people to survive and live a happy, fruitful life. I hope our fans know that tough times like this aren't going to last. Eventually, we'll get back to normalcy, God willing, and the box will be poppin again."