Wall St.Journal Weekend 29Feb2020

A16| Saturday/Sunday, February 29 - March 1, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

WHEN ORGANIZERSfor the

2012 Olympics allowed them-

selves to imagine their worst

public health fears, they al-

ways found one scenario

troubling: What if someone

walked into a London hospital

with an unusual infectious

disease?

Their solution to this prob-

lem was a surveillance pro-

gram unlike anything ever at-

tempted for a global sporting

event. The results were so suc-

cessful that this system of tar-

geting undiagnosed severe in-

fectious diseases in hospitals

was implemented by Britain’s

National Health Service and

quickly set a global standard.

Rio used it for the 2016

Olympics. Tokyo adopted it

before the 2020 Games. And

earlier this year, it worked

precisely as designed.

The surveillance program

driven by the unique risks of

the Olympics helped Japan

identify the first case of a

novel coronavirus within its

borders, said Dr. Brian

McCloskey, the director of

public health for the London

Games.

The reason it took one of

the world’s great athletic

spectacles to drive innovation

in public health: The Olym-

pics are a Petri dish for infec-

tious disease.

The possibility of this sum-

mer’s Tokyo Olympics being

in peril because of the novel

virus was raised this week by

Dick Pound, a senior member

of the International Olympic

Committee, who said that or-

ganizers would have to make

a call whether to cancel or

postpone the Games in the

next three months.

But there is so much un-

known about this unpredict-

able virus that it appears the

only course of action regard-

ing the Olympics is to buy as

much time before making a

decision with more than $

billion on the line.

If you had to design a vec-

tor to spread a highly conta-

gious disease, though, you

would imagine an environ-

ment that squeezes hundreds

of thousands of people into

crowded spaces and sends

them back home after two

weeks of mingling with

strangers. The Olympics are

that environment.

The athletes’ village alone

is as conducive to the spread

of disease as college dorms. It

consists of exhausted compet-

itors with depleted immune

systems living on top of each

other in a cluster of tower

blocks. They spend much of

their day shaking hands and

kissing strangers (and some-

times more).

But a potential outbreak in

Tokyo during the Games

would only be a small part of

the problem. Epidemiologists

fear the Olympics becoming a

hub of transmission with as-

ymptomatic people spreading

the virus once they return

home to their countries.

“It works both ways,” said

Dr. William Schaffner, an in-

fectious disease specialist at

Vanderbilt University. “Who’s

going to bring it in? If it

spreads there, where will it

go subsequently?”

BYLAINEHIGGINS

Will the Tokyo Olympics get canceled because of the coronavirus?

TOMOHIRO OHSUMI/GETTY IMAGES

These Stars Need an Introduction

It has been an odd season in men’s college basketball without One Great Team or One Transcendent Player

throwback players. Guys that have

invested at an incredibly high level

at their institutions,” said Mar-

quette Coach Steve Wojciechowski,

who played at Duke in the ‘90s.

“Not to sound like a dinosaur, but

back in my day those were the guys

that would win national players of

the year.”

Wojciechowski coaches Howard,

the most productive scorer in

college basketball. The 5-

foot-11 senior is the only

college player this cen-

tury to score 50

points in a single

contest more than

once (he’s done so

thrice) and he aver-

ages a ridiculous 27.

points per game. How-

ard is responsible for

32.3% of the Golden Eagles’

offense—an absurdly high share

given how teams defend him.

“I don’t think there’s any player

that has more responsibility on his

team than Markus does for us,” said

Wojciechowski.

There’s a player on the West

Coast that comes close: Oregon’s

point guard Pritchard. The Ducks’

leading scorer has barely stepped

off the court in the last two sea-

sons, recording the most minutes

played in the nation as a junior

(1,349) and averaging 36.3 minutes

A Petri Dish for Infectious Disease

Weather

Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W City Hi LoW Hi LoW

Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Anchorage 18 15 c 28 20 sn

Atlanta 51 33 s 61 45 pc

Austin 73 57 s 77 59 c

Baltimore 40 24 pc 52 37 s

Boise 48 28 c 48 25 sf

Boston 3924pc 3829s

Burlington 24 13 sn 27 16 sn

Charlotte 50 26 pc 59 42 s

Chicago 39 33 s 59 37 pc

Cleveland 31 23 c 52 42 c

Dallas 72 56 pc 75 59 c

Denver 5832pc 4722c

Detroit 33 20 pc 45 38 pc

Honolulu 79 68 sh 80 69 sh

Houston 75 58 s 76 66 c

Indianapolis 37 28 s 56 45 pc

Kansas City 67 51 s 69 37 pc

Las Vegas 75 54 c 63 46 pc

Little Rock 63 49 s 65 58 c

Los Angeles 71 52 c 62 45 t

Miami 73 50 s 74 63 pc

Milwaukee 38 32 s 50 34 pc

Minneapolis 42 32 c 46 25 c

Nashville 50 35 pc 64 51 c

New Orleans 69 52 s 72 61 c

New York City 37 26 pc 43 37 s

Oklahoma City 73 50 s 74 45 s

Omaha 65 36 s 59 29 pc

Orlando 67 41 s 71 51 s

Philadelphia 38 25 pc 47 36 s

Phoenix 80 54 pc 75 49 c

Pittsburgh 32 21 sf 49 40 s

Portland, Maine 35 16 c 34 20 s

Portland, Ore. 50 35 sh 51 37 c

Sacramento 67 41 c 63 42 c

St. Louis 55 45 s 66 48 pc

Salt Lake City 59 35 c 38 26 r

San Francisco 59 45 c 62 48 c

Santa Fe 59 31 s 57 31 pc

Seattle 49 37 sh 49 40 sh

Sioux Falls 53 33 s 47 23 pc

Wash., D.C. 42 28 pc 52 41 s

Amsterdam 53 39 r 47 38 r

Athens 59 44 s 60 47 s

Baghdad 76 50 pc 68 47 pc

Bangkok 93 80 pc 96 81 pc

Beijing 44 35 c 54 27 pc

Berlin 52 39 r 48 37 pc

Brussels 53 38 r 48 38 r

Buenos Aires 81 71 s 85 71 s

Dubai 80 65 pc 82 67 pc

Dublin 44 35 sh 45 33 sh

Edinburgh 44 36 r 44 35 sf

Frankfurt 57 40 r 50 41 pc

Geneva 58 42 r 54 38 sh

Havana 73 56 s 79 58 s

Hong Kong 78 68 pc 78 66 pc

Istanbul 49 40 sh 51 44 pc

Jakarta 85 78 t 87 77 t

Jerusalem 55 46 pc 53 43 sh

Johannesburg 64 53 t 67 57 t

London 48 38 r 49 37 sh

Madrid 58 43 pc 58 49 pc

Manila 89 73 s 89 72 pc

Melbourne 75 57 pc 87 59 pc

Mexico City 78 50 pc 81 55 s

Milan 51 42 pc 50 39 pc

Moscow 34 26 sn 40 36 c

Mumbai 90 76 pc 90 76 pc

Paris 53 40 r 50 39 r

Rio de Janeiro 80 71 c 78 71 t

Riyadh 87 60 pc 88 56 pc

Rome 59 50 pc 62 50 sh

San Juan 86 73 pc 85 73 sh

Seoul 55 32 s 56 32 pc

Shanghai 53 48 r 58 44 c

Singapore 90 76 pc 91 77 pc

Sydney 7866pc 8270pc

Taipei City 83 65 pc 81 62 pc

Tokyo 5447pc 5846c

Toronto 24 15 c 35 33 c

Vancouver 47 33 c 46 36 pc

Warsaw 4538pc 5034sh

Zurich 55 41 sh 54 37 pc

Today Tomorrow

U.S. Forecasts

International

City Hi LoW Hi LoW

s...sunny; pc... partly cloudy; c...cloudy; sh...showers;

t...t’storms; r...rain; sf...snow flurries; sn...snow; i...ice

Today Tomorrow

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L

ast winter, a certain 6-

foot-7, 285-pound Duke

freshman dominated

the court and the air-

waves: Zion Williamson

was quite literally the

biggest thing to hit college basket-

ball in decades. Making it to March

without knowing his name would

have required hibernation.

But this year, a season without

One Great Team or One Transcen-

dent Player, it’s a different story. You

would be forgiven if you had no idea

who might succeed Williamson as

the 2020 national player of the year.

“Zion is one of those once-in-a-

generation players that has the abil-

ity to overshadow a lot of other

great players in college basketball,”

said Seton Hall Coach Kevin Wil-

lard. “I think that’s what happened

last year.”

Willard coaches senior guard

Myles Powell, one of many veterans

atop the watch list for the John R.

Wooden Award, given to college

basketball’s best player each April.

None of them are even close to be-

ing household names. The other

front-runners include Oregon senior

Payton Pritchard, Iowa junior Luka

Garza and Marquette senior Markus

Howard. The least experienced of

the bunch is Dayton’s Obi Toppin, a

redshirt sophomore who turns 22

next week.

The top athletes in college bas-

ketball this season followed radi-

cally different paths from the fresh-

men that ruled in 2018-19. They

were respectable prospects coming

out of high school, but not so tal-

ented that they committed to blue

blood programs or could leave cam-

pus for the NBA after two

semesters. Instead, they

stuck around. They de-

veloped. And years

into their college ca-

reers they blos-

somed into Wooden

Award contenders.

Once the Los An-

geles Athletics Club

started giving out the

Wooden Award to men

in 1977, seniors usually won

with a few notable exceptions

(Larry Bird in 1979 and Michael

Jordan in 1984). Underclassmen

started dominating during the

height of the sport’s “prep-to-pro”

era in the late 90s, and continued to

do so after 2006, when the NBA in-

stituted the so-called “one-and-

done” rule. Seniors won from 2014

to 2017, but junior Jalen Brunson of

Villanova and Williamson captured

the last two.

“One of the things I love about

this year is that you have a lot of

per game this year.

“I was really amazed with his

competitiveness and just how hard

he played the whole time,” said Wil-

lard of Pritchard, who led the Ducks

with 16 points in a 71-69 victory

over Seton Hall in November.

Willard respects Pritchard’s out-

put in part because he coaches Pow-

ell, a player with a similarly heavy

workload. Although injuries have

kept the guard out of a handful of

games this season, Powell’s play

only improves as his opponents

grow fiercer. Against then-No. 3

Michigan State in November he

scored 37 points and hung 34 on

then-No. 5 Butler last month.

“I thought he was going to be a

really great player, but he continued

to work,” said Willard. “Myles is one

of those guys that loves coming in

the gym. Being in the gym is kind of

his sanctuary.”

Ditto for Iowa center Garza, a

self-proclaimed workout fiend who

put on 15 pounds of muscle over the

summer after modifying his diet and

putting himself through three train-

ing sessions each day. At 6 foot 11,

Garza was already a force in the

paint for the Hawkeyes. The added

strength transformed the junior into

a scoring machine who averages

23.6 points per game. He muscles his

way to the rim even when quadru-

ple-teamed, as he was at one point

by Michigan State on Tuesday night,

and owns the fifth best offensive

rating in the country, according to

KenPom.com.

Perhaps the most surprising

player to emerge from this jumbled

college basketball season is Dayton’s

Toppin. During his junior year of

high school, when programs put the

full court press on basketball’s elite

prospects, he was a scrawny 6-foot-

forward. Now, six years and 7 inches

later, Toppin is the most electric

dunker in men’s college hoops. He

throws down an average of 3.3 high-

light reel-worthy dunks per contest

with flair reminiscent of the defend-

ing Wooden Award winner and has

the Flyers on track to earn a No. 1

tournament seed.

Dayton’s No. 3 ranking in the USA

Today Coaches’ Poll is not just an-

other product of this topsy-turvy

season; it’s a sign that one uber-tal-

ented payer can elevate the play of

an entire roster. Whether these

Wooden Award front-runners’ teams

will end their seasons cutting down

the nets is another story.

But with NCAA tournament com-

ing up, there are precious few op-

portunities to see these game-chang-

ing players on the court before you

fill out your bracket. This Saturday,

the Big East will offer a two-for-one

deal: Markus Howard and Marquette

against Myles Powell and Seton Hall. GARZA|, TOPPIN|, POWELL: ASSOCIATED PRESS; PRITCHARD|, HOWARD: ASSOCIATED PRESS

7

Number of men’s

college basketball teams

thathavebeenranked

No. 1 in the AP poll this

year, tying a record

set in the 1982-

season.

SPORTS

Luka Garza (Iowa), Obi Toppin (Dayton), Payton Pritchard (Oregon), Myles Powell (Seton Hall) and Markus Howard (Marquette) are the leading contenders for this year’s Wooden Award.

BYBENCOHEN

ANDJOSHUAROBINSON