Throughout the college basketball season, teams at all levels have been forced to pause activities due to positive COVID-19 tests. This includes Fairleigh Dickinson University’s basketball team.

The men’s basketball team was forced to suspend their season on Jan. 5 after only playing eight games.

“You just feel like you leave the earth and then you just watch the earth turn around. It’s an odd feeling that everyone’s playing, doing their job, living their life as best as possible, but you’re quarantined,” says head coach Greg Herenda.

FDU postponed three games and Herenda says some players have been completely confined to their dorm rooms.

“In that room 100%. You can’t leave. You have a bathroom and a microwave and it’s 10 days,” he says.

The program will resume practices early next week with the team’s first game back set for Thursday at Merrimack.

While it has been disruptive, Herenda says that there have been some positives from playing in a pandemic.

“Now I think to save your legs and to be healthy, obviously, and to be in shape and not to overwork is sometimes more important than to grind people. And I think it’s that way in our normal lives,” Herenda says.

But despite the challenges of testing for the virus, quarantining and constant schedule changes, Herenda says that there is a lot to look forward to.

“We’re getting there. We have a vaccine, we have an NCAA tournament to look forward to. You just have to one step at a time. Get those goals and we just have to stay the course,” he says.

Fairleigh Dickinson is 2-6 on the season so far.