The University of Cincinnati men's and women's basketball teams will hopefully open their upcoming seasons with a "limited" fan presence inside Fifth Third Arena, UC Director of Athletics John Cunningham said.
"If we can do it, we will," Cunningham told The Enquirer on Tuesday.
Cunningham's statement came after he announced the university's plan for the 2020-21 basketball season, which included no season tickets.
"We will start the season without fans in Fifth Third Arena," Cunningham initially wrote in an open letter to fans. "We will permit fans in the arena later in the season only if we determine it is safe and appropriate to do so. We are not holding to a timeframe on such a determination."
Season ticket-holder status and ticket locations will automatically be rolled over to the 2021-22 season, for all season-ticket holders, Cunningham said. The announcement came the day after Northern Kentucky University said it wouldn't host fans at BB&T Arena in December.
The schedules for both UC basketball teams have yet to be finalized. The men's team is scheduled to play rival Xavier in the Crosstown Shootout on Dec. 6 at Fifth Third Arena.
American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco announced last month 20-game, double round-robin conference schedules in both men’s and women’s basketball for each of the American’s 11 member institutions, including Cincinnati.
The conference previously played an 18-game schedule for conference games in men’s basketball and a 16-game conference schedule in women’s basketball.
Conference play in men’s basketball will begin with three windows for games in December (Dec. 14-17, Dec. 21-23 and Dec. 28-31). The conference schedule in women’s basketball will begin with four windows in December (Dec. 14-17, Dec. 18-20, Dec. 21-23 and Dec. 28-31).
In the event fans are permitted to attend games, the athletic department will sell tickets on a single-game basis and tickets will be made available only to season-ticket holders, Cunningham said.
"We will be following strict health and safety protocols for our student-athletes," he said. This will include enhanced testing, daily health and safety checks, and the creation and maintenance of a stringent gameday 'bubble.' "
The UC men's team finished the 2019-20 regular season with a 20-10 (13-5 AAC) record, a tie for the American regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. But there was no conference tournament. There was no postseason. Several conference tournaments and the NCAA tournament were canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Keith Williams is the Bearcats' leading returning scorer. The senior guard averaged 12.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals last season. Williams last week earned preseason first-team All-AAC honors.
The Bearcats women's team lost to Connecticut in the AAC tournament championship last season after posting a 22-10 (11-5 AAC) mark. It was the first time the UC women's team had reached a tournament championship game in 17 years.
Senior forward Iimar'i Thomas last week was selected the preseason American Co-Player of the Year, along with Temple forward Mia Davis. Thomas earned first-team, all-league honors each of the past two seasons. She averaged 18.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.1 blocks last season.
Both UC teams were picked to finish fourth in the American this season by the conference's coaches.
The basketball attendance plan is essentially the same one that the university instituted at Nippert Stadium for this football season, which has limited attendance to only immediate family of Cincinnati football players and coaches and their opponents.
UC welcomed more families to Nippert on game day for the first time last Saturday for the Bearcats' game against Memphis.
The stands were filled with family members of the university's spirit squads (cheer, dance, band and mascot), and the Bearcats had a full band on hand. That was different than the abbreviated pep band that was in attendance for the first three home games.
"The fans were a factor," UC coach Luke Fickell said. "There were 300 of them there, their families. It was just a little bit more of a different atmosphere."
The Cincinnati football team (5-0, 3-0 AAC) is No. 6 in both The Associated Press and Coaches polls. The Bearcats are scheduled to host Houston on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. on ESPN.