Rick Pitino offers suggestion for college basketball season

Rick Pitino offered a few suggestions Wednesday for how the NCAA should run the 2020-2021 college basketball season.

Pitino, who was named Iona’s head coach in March, thinks the NCAA should push back the start of the season to January and only play conference games.

Suggestion to the NCAA, push the start of the season back to January and only play league games. Buy some more time for a vaccine and to get things under control. Although I can’t wait to be back on the sidelines, the health of my players and staff is what’s really important.

— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) July 1, 2020

The college basketball season typically begins in early November and crowns a Division-I champion in April after the NCAA Tournament ends. This year, the NCAA Tournament and most conference tournaments were canceled due to COVID-19.

College football is planning and attempting to play a season this fall. Whether college football and college basketball are able to play seasons in the upcoming academic year remains to be seen.