Happy Thanksgiving - Basketball Is On The Menu

Well now we know: the NCAA will allow men’s and women’s basketball to commence on November 25th, the day before Thanksgiving.

That means that while we may be still social distancing and isolating with our turkey, at least we can watch some damn games with no fans.

Well, that’s getting ahead of things. There may be fans, at least some. Who knows?

The good news though is just a sliver of normality creeping through near the end of this Annus horribilis.

The NCAA’s Dan Gavitt said this: “The new season start date near the Thanksgiving holiday provides the optimal opportunity to successfully launch the basketball season. It is a grand compromise of sorts and a unified approach that focuses on the health and safety of student-athletes competing towards the 2021 Division I basketball championships.”

Speaking of health and safety, there are increasingly good bits of news. Several companies and nations think that vaccines are very nearly ready and at our ACC sister school Pitt, researchers have found something very important. We’ll screw it up if we try to summarize this so straight to the source:

“University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists have isolated the smallest biological molecule to date that completely and specifically neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the cause of COVID-19. This antibody component, which is 10 times smaller than a full-sized antibody, has been used to construct a drug—known as Ab8—for potential use as a therapeutic and prophylactic against SARS-CoV-2.

“The researchers report today in the journal Cell that Ab8 is highly effective in preventing and treating SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice and hamsters. Its tiny size not only increases its potential for diffusion in tissues to better neutralize the virus, but also makes it possible to administer the drug by alternative routes, including inhalation. Importantly, it does not bind to human cells—a good sign that it won’t have negative side-effects in people.”