The familiar sounds of basketballs bouncing on the court and swishing through the net have finally returned to Jason Gym.
Ahead of a shortened 2020-21 season due to COVID-19, the Lincoln men's and women's basketball teams began practice last Thursday, the first day possible set by the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
"It's great to be back in the gym with these guys," Lincoln men's basketball coach John Moseley said. "For us, we have a lot of new faces. It's great to really be on the floor and build that camaraderie that comes with being part of a team."
There will be plenty of new faces within the women's basketball program at Lincoln, and it starts with the Blue Tigers' new head coach, Drea Mize.
"We're re-acclimating the kids and making sure we take the necessary precautions," Mize said. "I feel like we're starting to finally get an idea of where I'm wanting the program to go, in the philosophy and the little details."
In mid-June, the MIAA announced it was limiting basketball schedules to 22 conference games, with no opportunities to play non-conference regular-season opponents. The schedules, which consist of 11 home games and 11 road games, were approved by the MIAA CEO Council.
But there were still five months to go before the first game of the basketball season Nov. 19. And in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, nothing was guaranteed, as 2020 spring and fall sports teams in the MIAA have lost their seasons.
"It was on my mind the whole year, once I heard the football season was canceled," Lincoln men's basketball senior guard Ni'Sean Rigmaiden said. "Our basketball team was trying to figure out if we were going to have a season.
"We stayed in the gym, kept getting up shots and kept building our team chemistry."
In mid-August, the MIAA announced it was delaying its decision regarding winter sports competition until Oct. 1, leaving many wondering if the season might be postponed.
"There's always a chance that some things can be moved around, depending on what happens with the virus," Moseley said.
On Oct. 1, the MIAA announced there would not be a formal football season in 2020-21, but the basketball season would begin as scheduled, starting with the first day of practice Oct. 15.
"Everybody started getting more time in the gym," Rigmaiden said, once the announcement was made.
But it's not like both basketball teams were sitting around doing nothing until last Thursday.
"We started the school year with our normal four hours a week on the floor, eight hours a week total, including conditioning and weights," Moseley said. "We were in pods of four. The guys didn't intermingle from pod to pod.
"It was normal skill development workouts in those groups for about three weeks. We didn't begin until Sept. 1 because of COVID."
As for the women's basketball team, a lot of that preseason time was spent working on team chemistry, an important factor considering only three players return from the 2019-20 roster.
"We have a big mix of different characters and different personalities and different playing styles," Mize said. "I think that's probably been our greatest challenge so far, is how we can get them to mesh, but doing so with it being COVID-friendly.
"Normally, I would have had them doing team dinners together and a lot more outings, and we would be doing more charity work outside of campus life. COVID has really not allowed us to do those things."
There was a recruiting dead period during the summer, making it harder for teams to reload their basketball rosters.
"It was certainly different," Moseley said. "You're doing campus tours virtually."
The Lincoln women currently have an exhibition game scheduled for Nov. 18 at SIU-Edwardsville. Both the men's and women's teams will open the regular season Saturday, Nov. 21, with a doubleheader against Central Missouri at Jason Gym. MIAA games will follow a Thursday-Saturday format this season.
Moseley said Lincoln is hopeful to open the season with at least 25 percent capacity - or 385 people - in home games during November and December.
"As an administration, we're working through what that's going to look like," said Moseley, who is also Lincoln's athletic director. "It's allotting tickets for our players' families and the visiting team's families. And then we want to try to accommodate as many of our local community and alums as we can.
"Our students will be going home when the season starts, so we won't have to accommodate as many students in that allotment as we normally would. While we'll have a reduced crowd in Jason Gym, I'm still confident the crowd that we do have will have a significant presence and influence on our teams."
The regular season will wrap up Saturday, Feb. 27, for Lincoln, this time with a road doubleheader at Central Missouri.
And, hopefully, with 22 outcomes in the Blue Tigers' final records.
"If COVID has taught us anything, it's that you can expect the unexpected," Mize said.
