Mark Montieth: Miss suits on the sidelines? Sorry. Sweats, other changes might be here to stay.

Coaches in sweatsuits instead of suits and ties.

Players distancing on the side of the court.

Zoom calls replacing press conferences and long-distance recruiting trips.

Reporters covering events from home.

And, of course, masks. All those masks.

The changes the COVID-19 virus has forced upon the sports world involve not only the way games have been played and attended but also how they’ve been covered by the media. Someday, however, restrictions will be removed, and sporting events can go back to being what was regarded as normal.

Or will they?

Some of the pandemically induced adjustments figure to become part of a new norm. In some cases, it’s becoming the mother of invention. In others, it’s more like letting the genie out of the bottle.

The most noticeable change likely to remain is the coaches’ dress code. For eons, basketball coaches at the college and professional levels have worn a suit or sport coat, usually with a tie. Bob Knight memorably bucked the system in 1985 when he broke out a golf shirt for Indiana’s game with Purdue, the one in which he rearranged the furniture on his sideline to protest the judgment of the referees. He never went back to his plaid sport coats, opting for sweaters or windbreakers the rest of his career.

A few other coaches have adopted casual looks over the years—George Raveling even wore a sweat suit while coaching Iowa in the ’80s—but the vast majority dressed up for work. Some aren’t planning to go back, though. Just as Casual Fridays seeped into the business world and became the norm, comfortable garb has taken hold of the basketball world.

“I would think they allow us to stay casual dress,” Purdue Coach Matt Painter said. “I have yet to hear somebody in charge making a push to put everybody back in the suits. I would think some [coaches] go back to dressing up and some stay the same.”

Put Painter in the casual-dress column if he can help it. Brad Stevens, too. Or, as he calls it, “basketball casual.”

Stevens, the former Butler coach now leading the Boston Celtics, said NBA coaches voted before the season resumed in the “bubble” in Orlando last summer to dress for comfort. They have continued to do so this season. Having grown accustomed to the luxury, most have no desire to give it up.

“If I have any say at all, which I don’t, I certainly vote to keep our attire,” Stevens said. “You feel better on the sidelines.

“Maybe this will be a change we can keep and move forward with.”

Spread out

Former Pacers forward Thad Young, now with the Chicago Bulls, appreciated the relaxed game-night dress code for players who aren’t on the active roster when he sat out the first four games of the season with a lower-leg staph infection. He hopes that continues, but he’s not enjoying the spacious sidelines.

With fan attendance relegated to few or none and with heightened emphasis on limiting the spread of germs, players have been required to sit apart from one another. In the NBA, each player has his own station, complete with masks, sanitizers and a beverage cooler. Throw in a recliner and it’s almost like watching a game from home.

Players and coaches seem to prefer the cramped quarters of a traditional team bench, with fans practically breathing down their collective neck.

“I love being close to everybody; I love being able to hear everybody,” Stevens said. “You miss so much the energy of the fans in the building.”

“It doesn’t bother me sitting next to a guy,” Young said. “You don’t feel like you’re in the environment of the game when you’re not with your teammates. You feel confined.”

Butler’s Aaron Thompson is eager to regroup as well.

“I like how it used to be—the normalcy,” he said. “That’s how we’ve grown up doing it.”

Off limits

The trial separations have extended to media coverage as well, and that’s brought mixed reviews. Before the pandemic, NBA locker rooms by league rule were open to reporters before and after games. Coaches were required to be available before and after games as well, meeting with media members in hallways or designated rooms. College locker rooms are rarely open to the media anymore, but coaches and players have been available outside of them.

Now it’s all being done by online Zoom calls. That technological advancement was coming, anyway, but the pandemic made it a necessity. Zoom calls are used for the vast majority of interviews, including postgame access with players, and are likely to become the norm, at least aside from game coverage.

Painter hopes so, anyway.

“It’s great,” he said. “It’s more efficient. As long as everybody gets their intel. You can be accessible without overdoing it. That’s something that will stay with us.”

Indiana University Media Relations Director J.D. Campbell agrees. Why ask reporters to drive an hour or more to attend a coach’s press conference when it can be done on a half-hour Zoom call with reporters working from home or an office?

“I know we will no longer do weekly press conferences in person,” Campbell said. “It doesn’t make sense—especially in the wintertime. That’s the one [change] I know will stick.”

Zoom calls also can be arranged more quickly than a traditional press conference. IU put that advantage to use on Monday when it had a Zoom call a few hours after announcing the firing of basketball coach Archie Miller.

It remains to be seen how game coverage will be handled—especially when teams play away from home. Campbell said he will “carefully evaluate” how to make his coaches available after road games. A Zoom call with the coach and a few players would likely be quicker than having reporters gather in a hallway outside a locker room.

“I’m trying to find the most efficient way to get us out of there,” he said, adding, “it probably wouldn’t be ideal for some [reporters].”

Some, maybe most, coaches and players will favor that approach, but not necessarily all of them. Communication always is enhanced in a face-to-face environment, and reporters and their sources benefit from a more casual and conversational approach that enables follow-up questions and lighthearted moments that enhance the relationship.

Young, widely regarded as one of the NBA’s most media-friendly players, usually prefers talking with reporters personally after a game rather than via online hookup.

“You miss the personal aspect because you form relationships with the people who cover the team,” he said. “You like to be able to look somebody in the eye. I guess when you’re winning, you want to talk to all the people in the world, and when you’re losing, you’d rather have a Zoom call and get it out of the way.”

Long-distance coverage

If interview access is limited to Zoom calls, why even bother traveling to a game? That’s the dilemma facing some media outlets, as well as teams and networks that foot the bill for their broadcast crews. The Pacers’ radio and television broadcasts, for example, currently originate from Bankers Life Fieldhouse and don’t sound dramatically different than in the past, aside from the absence of background crowd noise. There would be a financial incentive to continue keeping their broadcast teams home.

Spokespersons for the Pacers and the Fox Sports Indiana network declined to comment on their plans, and a Big Ten representative did not respond to an interview request.

The Indianapolis Star has sent a reporter to just two events requiring an airplane flight since the pandemic began—an Indy Car race in Texas and the Colts’ season opener in Jacksonville. All other out-of-town events have been covered from home or by driving. The Star did not have a reporter in Orlando for the Pacers’ end-of-season games last year and has not traveled to cover the team this season.

As convenient as the Zoom setup might be for teams, it’s far from ideal from a media perspective.

“If you’re a beat guy, you’re around the players all the time and develop relationships,” said Nat Newell, the Star’s deputy sports editor. “You can pull a guy aside and ask a tidbit instead of asking a question in front of everybody else. [Pacers beat writer] J. Michael has had zero time to get to know any of these guys.”

“Colts, too. Our reporters spend a lot of time in the locker room, where they can talk off the record. Maybe a player says something interesting you can turn into a story later. It’s much harder to develop unique story ideas. Anything you ask [on a Zoom call], everybody can hear, and all of a sudden the enterprise story you’ve been working becomes a 12-inch story for everybody else.”

Newell said the Star plans to resume traveling to events when access to the participants makes it feasible.

Video recruiting

The pandemic has had a major impact on recruiting. Athletes are now committing to schools they have yet to see in person, following Zoom pitches from coaches. Painter, for one, plans to continue video chats in the early stages of recruiting. As with any business transaction, a Zoom call is better than a phone call to get acquainted with a “client,” but not as desirable as a personal visit to close the deal.

“The Zooms are here to stay for recruiting,” Painter said. “You can get a feel for whether they are sincerely interested or just mildly interested. Recruiting should be face-to-face … but there’s been some wasted time and money across the board in the business world.”

Enhanced sanitary procedures are likely here to stay as well. Nobody can appreciate that better than Young, who contracted Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) during the Bulls’ training camp. The masks will come off at some point, however, and nobody will miss those.

“It’s hard to breathe and talk to your teammates on the sideline,” Young said.

But even that annoyance has some advantages.

“If I say a bad word, nobody can read my lips and put it on the internet,” Stevens said. “And my kids won’t ask me what I said.”•

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Montieth, an Indianapolis native, is a longtime newspaper reporter and freelance writer. He is the author of three books: “Passion Play: Coach Gene Keady and the Purdue Boilermakers,” “Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis,” and “Extra Innings: My Life in Baseball,” with former Indianapolis Indians president Max Schumacher.