San Jose State basketball moving to Arizona for temporary bubble
Dec 17, 2020, 1:49 PM | Updated: 2:57 pm
(San Jose State Athletics)
(San Jose State Athletics)
San Jose State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams will be moving to Arizona for a temporary bubble due to COVID-19 restrictions in California.
The Spartans’ women’s team will arrive on Dec. 17 while the men come a week later. The teams will be staying at The Arizona Grand Resort, located in south Phoenix, for approximately a month.
That’s the same resort New Mexico State’s basketball program is staying at for similar reasons. The San Francisco 49ers also relocated to Arizona in early December and will be staying until Dec. 21.
The move was approved by the Arizona Sports & Entertainment Commission. The commission has been working closely with the school’s athletic department to help with hotel accommodations and practice facilities.
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“As we begin Mountain West Conference competition, this temporary move will allow our student-athletes and staff to live in as controlled an environment as possible,” San Jose State athletic director Marie Tuite said in a release. “We will plan on returning to San José when the directives from our health officials allow our programs to practice and compete in Santa Clara County.”
Arizona is currently going through record-high coronavirus numbers, including COVID-19 inpatients (3,884), overall inpatient capacity (93%), overall ICU capacity (92%) and fewest open ICU beds (140).
The number of cases per day has spiked, with post-Thanksgiving tests done on Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and Dec. 2 reaching over 7,000 per day, according to the Arizona Department of Health and Services. Those numbers hit over 7,000 cases on Dec. 7, 8 and 9 as well.
The previous high before November was 5,452 on June 29, and the daily number had held below 2,000 from July 22 to Nov. 2. A second wave of the virus has hit the state hard since, like the majority of the country.
