Two words could sum up the scene at UMBC on Friday afternoon around twelve
o’clock: mass exodus. UMBC, a school known for being on of the last schools to
close due to inclement weather, did so Friday when they closed campus at
1:00 p.m. Hundreds of students fled UMBC as snowflakes fell from the sky as
the one of the worst storms in Maryland history began. However, as students
were departing the campus, the UMBC men’s basketball went through their warm-ups as they
prepared to play a game against Vermont at 3 p.m, two hours after the
school was closed. The notice about the game change was made on Friday
morning and the game took place as the Retrievers lost 60-79 to the
Catamounts in front of a reported crowd of 670 people.

The men’s basketball game was originally scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m. and
was moved up to the Friday afternoon slot due to the storm according to
umbcretrievers.com. In addition, the women’s basketball team, also slated to played on
Saturday, was moved back to Sunday at 11 a.m. But there was also another
UMBC sporting event to take place on Saturday as well. On Feb. 3rd an a
notice was posted on the UMBC athletic website that the men’s lacrosse team
scrimmage against Villanova to take place at UMBC at 1 p.m. on Saturday was
moved up to Feb. 4th at 4:30 p.m. The announcement showed that the athletic
department knew beforehand of the storm and made steps to have the
exhibition game take place.

Blizzards don’t happen often and when they do, changes have to be made.
With that said, however, some questions have to asked about the decision-making process that went on in regards to the Feb. 6th games.

Why did the athletic department make arrangements for the men’s lacrosse
team scrimmage days before the storm and the men’s basketball team less
than 24 hours before the blizzard? How can UMBC feel as though they should
be closed at 1 p.m. but still be fit to host a basketball game hours later?
Did the athletic department feel as though students and fans would ignore
the fact the school was closed and still attend a basketball game?

These questions will be answered in an upcoming issue of the Retriever Weekly.