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UNLV athletic director Discusses Search For New UNLV Basketball Coach

Steve Marcus

UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois speaks at a news conference at the Mendenhall Center Friday, March 15, 2019. Reed-Francois discussed the firing of UNLV basketball head coach Marvin Menzies and the search for a new coach.

UNLV is going to try to play football in the fall, and on Friday the university (and the Mountain West) detailed some of the precautions that will be taken in order to complete a truncated eight-game schedule.

The campaign will commence on Oct. 24, with each MWC team slated to play eight games against conference opponents. The season will run eight weeks, with no byes and no time allotted for potential postponements or rescheduling if there are positive COVID-19 cases along the way.

It’s a precarious attempt to salvage the season, so frequent testing and diligent health protocols will be of paramount importance.

UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois said the biggest factor in the league reversing its decision was the increased availability of rapid testing.

“When the Mountain West Conference postponed football, we had testing that was taking four days to get back the results,” Reed-Francois said. “That made it not viable for us to move forward and compete. Now our testing is getting back less than four hours.”

UNLV is currently testing its football players and staff once per week and will continue to do so for the next two weeks of training camp. On Oct. 10, the Mountain West will take over testing protocols and administer three tests per week.

League commissioner Craig Thompson said the MWC will assume the hefty costs of testing for all 12 teams. Thompson estimated that tally will run “well into the millions.”

Marcus Arroyo confirmed that all of UNLV’s football players are currently on campus, and the team convened to practice on Friday morning.

“We’re just excited to have the opportunity to get back out there,” Arroyo said. “We’re elated. Our guys were awesome this morning. We were cranked up.”

Though Thompson alluded to each school creating its own “bubble” environment on campus, Reed-Francois said that will not be the case at UNLV. Outside access to players will be limited, especially on game days, but the team will not be isolated together in a sealed section on campus like the NBA’s bubble in Orlando.

“It’s not necessarily a bubble,” Reed-Francois said. “Ours is different. We’re higher education. We have pods. We have a plan for each one of those pods and everything from how we do rotations to how we do meals to eventually how we do rooming lists.”

In the case of a player or coach testing positive for COVID-19, the individual would begin a self-quarantine period that will last between 10 to 14 days. During that time the university will conduct contact tracing in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.

Once a player clears quarantine, they’ll then have to pass a “cardiac clearance protocol,” which is designed to detect cases of myocarditis, which has been a reported side effect of COVID-19.

Reed-Francois said all UNLV games will be played in Allegiant Stadium and that her preference would be to allow a limited number of fans on game days, but that any live attendance is dependent upon local government restrictions.

“We are working in conjunction with our state and local officials to have a limited seating capacity, and if there’s a way forward we are definitely going to do that,” Reed-Francois said. “We want to be able to do that but we have to do it safely. We’ve had continuous conversations and we are cautiously optimistic.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

Article written by #LasVegasSun

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