For Coe and Cornell, an impromptu men’s basketball game summed up a strange, abbreviated season

A little less than three weeks ago, Coe College and Cornell College contacted each other and decided they wanted to play a men's college basketball game. They did so just four days later.

Welcome to the weird, wild, wacky world of Division III hoops in a pandemic.

Schedules are made on the fly, then inevitably changed. The national tournament recently was canceled by the NCAA.

If these schools wind up getting in half the amount of games they did last season, they'll feel fortunate. They already feel lucky they are playing at all.

'Not everybody in the country is right now, so we're very grateful to be playing,” said Cornell sophomore guard/forward Trevor Boge, a former North Linn prep. 'It's just not knowing what teams you are going to play, or when you are going to play, how much, that's hard. But we are playing, so you've got to be thankful.”

'A mental roller coaster. I'll start by saying that,” Coe Coach Bryan Martin said. 'But we are grateful to be playing, for sure. It is obviously not the environment we are used to. The crazy thing is it's just so day to day. You're dealing with COVID issues, you are dealing with literally daily scheduling of games.”

Coe had the advantage of being in a conference (the American Rivers) that OK'd competition this winter. The original idea was for league schools to play each other in a single round-robin format.

The Midwest Conference, meanwhile, decided not to sanction a season. The league said its members, like Cornell, could play if they wanted to but were on their own to find opponents.

Both schools played their first games in late January. Coe is 5-4 as it prepares for the A-R-C tournament next week, while Cornell is 3-3 with four games left, though Coach Dave Schlabaugh said he continues to be on the lookout for schools around the area that might want to play the Rams.

Cornell has played American Rivers Conference schools Coe and Wartburg once, picked up two games each against Midwest Conference foes Knox and Illinois College, as well as two-game home-and-away sets with Iowa Wesleyan and Eureka (Ill.).

'You've just got to be careful not to take a game on a day's notice with no prep. But you do the best you can,” Schlabaugh said. 'We are just trying to get opportunities for our guys. It hasn't been ideal, but whenever we have been able to play has been better than the alternative.”

Coe has played seven of the other eight schools in the A-R-C (the exception being Nebraska Wesleyan), Cornell and Finlandia (Mich.). The Kohawks also got in an exhibition game against D-I Northern Iowa.

'It was a long time coming,” said Coe senior guard Jake Eilers, a former Cedar Rapids Prairie prep. 'It just feels great to have some normalcy. With everything we're going through, with school right now, we're kind of living in a new world. Just coming out and playing basketball like we have the past few years is kind of a good break from reality it seems like sometimes. Coming out on a Friday night and playing with 20 of your best friends is a lot of fun.”

As part of A-R-C protocols, Coe players and coaches are tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis. Cornell players and coaches are tested three times a week.

The schools haven't been hit with any severe coronavirus outbreaks, which is great, though several originally scheduled A-R-C games have had to be changed to other dates because of COVID. Martin said league athletics directors have had a group call each Monday to update each other on their respective school's virus situation and if that week's schedule needed to be tweaked.

'We're playing Loras on Monday and Luther on Wednesday,” Martin said, after his team beat Cornell, 98-60, on Feb. 19 at Mount Vernon. 'We were supposed to play Loras a week and a half ago. Credit to our guys. They are doing all the right things, as far as trying to stay healthy and protecting others. They have been able to adapt to this ever-changing climate they are in. We just hope that everyone can stay healthy in the league, so we can get some more games in and get the tournament in.”

'You feel bad for the kids,” Schlabaugh said. 'First, they aren't getting the typical college experience, from being able to hang out in the dorms together to eating together. It's been kind of a peculiar year for our freshmen more than anybody because they're kind of used to being involved with everything once they get on campus.”

The coaches say they have concentrated way more on their teams than opponents because of the schedule flux. Players will be able to get this season of playing eligibility back if they so choose.

But remember - they aren't on scholarship.

'They're paying to play. That's what these kids are doing,” Martin said. 'It would be easy to be negative about things. But I'm proud of our guys because they haven't gone there. You saw the joy from our guys on the floor and on the bench because of how well we played. So at least we have that.”

'Everyone that comes to D-III has made the choice that they want to get a great education and also participate in athletics,” Eilers said. 'A lot of us have that financial strain because we decided to go D-III but wanted to keep playing. Having this season, no matter how long, gives us that sense of normalcy.”

Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com