It took almost two decades, but Allen Iverson’s notorious “practice” diatribe, juxtaposing the differences between workouts and game days, earned some vindication. 

All it took was a global pandemic. 

Game postponements have become an expected, if not anticipated, reality of COVID-19 safety protocols during a campaign Northeastern coach Bill Coen called, “maybe the most difficult season in college basketball history.” 

Coen’s Huskies have been among the more fortunate teams through the month of January in the CAA, playing conference games every week since New Year’s. But good fortune for one stretch does not guarantee smooth sailing ahead. 

Thus, programs must always be diligent and prepare for multiple scenarios that they may not know until days or even just hours before tipoff. 

While planning for the unpredictable is at the heart of practice — will an opponent play man or zone? Who’s going to have the hot hand if you focus defensive efforts on a leading scorer? — doing so for the circumstances brought on by infectious disease proves much more stressful. 

“That’s a daily agenda: What are the contingency plans. That alone — from an administrative level, all the way down to a player level — has been exhausting,” Coen said. “Because you’re constantly spending time on things that may or may not happen. 

“The nature of coaching is you want to be able to control more and more things,” he added. “Give yourself a better chance of outcome. COVID has put you in a position where nobody can really control it. You have to get a little peace of mind you’ve done everything to keep your student-athletes as safe as possible.” 

Coen cited situations in which administration might “start talking on Sunday and are playing on Tuesday or Wednesday,” which presents undeniable challenges that practices can only address so much. 

And then there are those situations in which there’s no game on the immediate horizon. 

Towson’s 72-69 defeat of UNCW on Jan. 18, meanwhile, marked the Tigers’ second game in three days, and the midway point of three games in just four days. Before that, their last game was on Dec. 26 in a win over Coppin State. 

Six Towson games were postponed during the team’s three-week layoff. 

Jumping back into competition reinforces that while practice is necessary to grasp schematic concepts, develop cohesion and reinforce fundamentals, there’s no replicating game conditions. 

As Towson coach Pat Skerry put it: “There’s no experience like running up and down the court with the uniform on and the whistle.” 

Games have an obvious and inherently much more narrow margin for error, like the difference between an exam and study hall. Rhythm and communication are put to the test, but one facet of transitioning from COVID-19-forced layoffs back into games may be the most difficult. 

“The largest adjustment is conditioning. It’s always going to be conditioning,” said Tigers forward Charles Thompson. “No matter how much you play, practice; live play, run up and down, the first four minutes of a basketball game are probably the most tiring minutes I’ve ever experienced. 

“The intensity of the first four minutes and just running up and down, getting back on defense, talking, all that combined is just really exhausting and tiring,” he added. 

Teams face this transition every season, but like Coen said, 2020-21 isn’t every season. Every program goes through the acclimation process at the same time during a typical campaign, tipping off around Veteran’s Day with non-conference games and playing in tournaments over the Thanksgiving weekend. 

The asymmetrical nature of COVID-19 era schedules leaves some teams having to get accustomed to game conditions all over again, however, while others are fortunate enough to avoid lengthy layoffs. 

Skerry noted after Towson’s win over UNC-Wilmington on Jan. 18 that the Seahawks “feel the same way” as the Tigers. Prior to Jan. 2, however, UNC-Wilmington played nine games without a postponement. 

From navigating an unimpacted slate first month to missing almost four weeks, the Seahawks have been on both sides of the pandemic docket. 

“I thought it affected us, I thought we came out a little lethargic and without the same pop I’m used to us having,” UNCW coach Takayo Siddle said. 

The Seahawks ran out to a 6-3 start before the layoff, but dropped their first two after returning. The post-layoff defeats weigh heavier, and speak to the difficulty adjusting to the start-and-stop schedule. 

“The problem is, you’re playing good conference teams. If you’re gonna drop one, it’s tough,” Skerry said, comparing getting into game shape in January as opposed to November. “We played so few games, we were in like the bottom 20 in the country of games played before . At some point, we’ve got to play.” 

Getting games in adds another layer of difficulty. Towson’s example is an extreme, as the Tigers will have played five games in just eight days Jan. 16-24, but that’s a lot of basketball — even for elite athletes. 

Seton Hall guard Andra Espinoza-Hunter, who shined over a five-games-in-nine-days stretch for the Pirates, compared the sprint of competition to the AAU circuit. However, she added that the physical toll now is higher. 

Physical wellness is also just one facet that players must face. 

“Mentally, it’s been really hard on these guys and I’m proud of them for hanging in there,” Skerry said.

As spectators, we watch games and understand conditions are not normal, with empty arenas, no bands performing, and so on. But after the buzzer sounds and the telecast ends, college athletes resume a surreal new existence. 

James Madison guard Terell Strickland detailed the scene after his record-setting, 10-steal debut in November. No reveling in the historic moment with classmates, no campus celebration afterward.

“We joked about how I did that, and then came back to the dorm room and went to sleep, and that’s it. That’s just how it is,” he said. 

Strickland said that part isn’t a significant adjustment for him, having attended Scotland Campus prep school in Pennsylvania last year, but he suspects it’s a major difference for some of his teammates. 

The James Madison freshman paints a picture that underscores some of the oddity in this “most difficult season.” 

Of the many differences between college basketball and the NBA, many of the traits that engender such passionate commitment — the atmosphere of the arenas with bands and cheerleaders and student sections, the kinship built through players and their campus peers who share classes the same day that the teams tip-off to play before worldwide audiences on TV and online — have been stripped by COVID-19. 

For all that’s been lost in 2020-21, however, and through the unprecedented challenges, there is an opportunity to truly appreciate what the game means to the members of these teams. 

“What’s it done is given everybody a heightened level of gratefulness, that we even get to do this. You have alternate universes: The time you’re on the court, whether it’s in practice or a game, you’re just doing what you do...You’re in and around the game you love. 

“Then you walk out and realize 400,000 people have died, and so many people have lost jobs and there’s so much hardship,” he continued. “It’s hard, at times, to really mesh those two universes. We’ve tried to take an attitude of gratitude: We get a chance to play today. We get a chance to practice today. That’s great.”

Kyle Kensing is a freelance sports journalist in southern California. Follow him on Twitter @kensing45.