Basketball is mind-numbingly dull to watch. But it can be mildly entertaining if players are vomiting.

A new study describes a 2010 outbreak involving several NBA teams (that’s the professionals, the ones who aren’t playing and no one notices), the first known report of a norovirus outbreak in a professional sports association.

Published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online, the study highlights unique circumstances for spreading this highly contagious virus among players and staff on and off the court.

Author Rishi Desai, MD, MPH, and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that as many as 13 NBA teams located in 11 different states were affected by a norovirus outbreak from November to December 2010. "We confirmed that norovirus spread within at least one team and possibly from one team to another," said Dr. Desai. "Overall, 21 players and three staff from 13 teams were affected."

Rigorous sports schedules and close interactions between athletes and staff put them at increased risk for norovirus infection, the study authors note. Athletes and staff spend a lot of time together in closed spaces—in buses and airplanes, locker rooms, and on the court. Norovirus can spread easily and quickly in such spaces -- through the air and on objects and surfaces where it can be infectious for days or weeks. Infected persons can shed billions of virus particles, making it very infective. Even the best hygiene and cleaning may not get rid of the virus since it resists common disinfectants.

Teams can limit norovirus transmission by keeping ill athletes off the court during games and practice, the study suggests, and by avoiding contact with athletes and staff when they are ill and up to 24 hours after recovery. Strict personal hygiene, including handwashing with soap and water, disinfecting common spaces with a sodium hypochlorite solution, and early reporting are critical for limiting transmission.

Basketball is interminably dull.

The first college game I ever went to on Jan. 30, 2008, Kansas State beat the University of Kansas – who went on to win the national crown – for the first time in 24 years.

All games should be like that. They’re not.

But I’ll watch tonight as K-State goes up against Xavier in a sweet-16 showdown, the first time K-State has been to that particular dance since 1988.

What would be a great storyline is if West Virginia met K-State for the final. Bob Huggins was rescued from career oblivion when they hired him as coach a few years ago. Huggins repaid K-State’s generosity by leaving after one year.

Locals are still upset.

But he left behind assistant coach Frank Martin, who’s turned K-State into a national competitor. The prodigy going up against the mentor. It would be like me and Chapman going on an all-nerd food safety Reach for the Top (trivia note: Chapman was actually on Reach for the Top or whatever the Ontario version was called when he was in high school).

In other NCAA news, the start of the Men's Swimming and Diving Championships has been delayed 24 hours to Friday after 18 student-athletes and a coach were treated for a possible gastrointestinal illness since arriving in Columbus, Ohio.

K-State’s Bramlage Coliseum would make an excellent hockey arena.
 

Mr. Eva Longoria, professional basketball player Tony Parker, missed San Antonio's game against Houston on Friday night because of what was thought to be foodborne illness.

Parker missed the morning shootaround and remained ill in the hours before the game.

Meanwhile, the U.K. Tottenham Spurs' Champions League bid is in danger of being derailed by a sickness bug - again.

Boss Harry Redknapp said,

"We had a few down with it the other day. Vedran Corluka had the virus and Wilson Palacios was not feeling great with it either. We closed down the training ground and although we trained there, everything else is off limits - the offices and the cafeteria. There will be no food or anything. We just got out on the pitch and got out of there. Other than that it's closed down completely.

Four years ago Spurs were set to finish in the top four under former boss Martin Jol until the squad was caught up in Lasagnegate.

Ten players were affected by illness before their final match at West Ham and although club officials at first blamed a dodgy lasagne it later transpired they had been affected by a norovirus.