MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – Fresh off his team's first-ever NCAA Division III Championship Tournament appearance over the weekend that included a memorable upset of No. 6 Johns Hopkins in a double-overtime classic, Penn State Harrisburg head coach Don Friday appeared on Idaho Sports Talk with Bob & Chris on KTIK 93.1 FM on Monday afternoon to discuss the Lions' unique experience of playing the biggest games in program history with no fans in attendance due to the threat of the coronavirus.
The North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Coach of the Year joined Bob Behler, the play-by-play announcer and voice of Boise State University football and basketball, as well as Chris Walton, a fixture on Boise radio since 1983, to explain how he and his team prepared for their first NCAA Tournament action while knowing that neither the Blue & White faithful nor fans of their opponents would be present to create the usual raucous atmosphere that comes with such an important matchup.
With the threat of the coronavirus making headlines worldwide, the show's hosts were particularly interested in how Friday and his squad were able to block out the distractions that came with Penn State Harrisburg joining the three other programs in the Johns Hopkins pod as the first collegiate teams in the nation forced to compete under the cloud of a spectator ban in hopes of preventing the possible spread of the disease.
The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Tournament is on the horizon and the chance of March Madness games being contested in empty arenas no longer seems out of the realm of possibility, and Friday contemplated the ramifications of such a potential situation becoming a reality in just a few weeks' time.
Fans can listen to the segment in its entirety at this link.
While historic due to the unprecedented banning of spectators at an athletic event for the first time since confirmed cases of the coronavirus hit the United States, Penn State Harrisburg's first NCAA Tournament action also proved historic in its introduction of the program to the national stage. The Lions' run included an instant classic that saw NEAC Player of the Year Donyae Baylor-Carroll score a single-game program-record 45 points in a double-OT victory over No. 6 Johns Hopkins on Friday night before the Lions fell to No. 13 Yeshiva in the second round the next night.