Nebraska’s Basketball Team Was Briefly Quarantined After Fred Hoiberg Left Their Game Sick

The NCAA Tournament, as of now, is planning to still take place, but it was announced on Wednesday that it will be played without fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The NBA reportedly planned to make the same announcement on Thursday, but was forced to suspend the season indefinitely after it was learned that Jazz center Rudy Gobert had tested positive for Coronavirus just prior to tipoff in Oklahoma City. The lingering question across all sports has been what will happen if a player tests positive, which hadn’t been able to be answered due to the lack of testing available across the country.

Now, we know that it has reached the NBA, and when the NBA suspended the season, many immediately looked to other leagues wondering if they must do the same, including whether the NCAA must consider the possibility of canceling the NCAA Tournament. Those whispers only grew louder after Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg was seen looking very ill on the bench and had to leave the game late in the second half with an illness and was taken to the hospital.

The Nebraska team was not made available to the media after the game, as they usually would, and were kept in the locker room under quarantine, per Chris Heady of the Omaha World-Herald.

Given the nature of testing it was unknown how long the Huskers would remain under quarantine and whether Hoiberg’s illness is simply him being sick or him having COVID-19. At this point, it’s a tense and scary situation and the hope is, obviously, that Hoiberg does not have it, while also being able to make a full recovery from whatever ailment this appears to be.

Heady reported a little later that the team had been given clearance to board the bus and return to the hotel, which is hopefully good news.

In what was hopefully a precautionary measure, the postgame cleaning crew at the venue was abruptly cleared out a little later on Wednesday evening.

We will continue to provide updates as they are available, but one would think this, coupled with the NBA situation, is only increasing the likelihood that the NCAA Tournament may be called off.

Hoiberg was reportedly released from the hospital late Wednesday night, and it was announced via team release that he was diagnosed with influenza A and not COVID-19.