PHOENIX — John­ny McCants and his New Mex­i­co State team­mates have set­tled into a rou­tine less than a week after the team tem­porar­i­ly relo­cat­ed to Arizona.

The Aggies lift weights in the morn­ing, prac­tice in the after­noon and watch film before din­ner. The rest of the time is spent in remote class­es and doing school­work or hang­ing out to play video games, maybe hit­ting the pool or the hot tub at Ari­zona Grand Resort & Spa in Phoenix.

Need some­thing from out­side the bub­ble — fast food, maybe a razor — all they have to do is ask and some­one will bring it to them.

The dif­fi­cult part: being so far from home.

“I was raised in (Las) Cruces and being around my fam­i­ly the whole time, so being away from them for a cou­ple of months is prob­a­bly going to be tough,” said McCants, a senior for­ward. “But a lit­tle adver­si­ty is nev­er going to hurt someone.”

The Aggies aren’t alone,

Coro­n­avirus restric­tions in New Mex­i­co have made it impos­si­ble for the schools there to play their sea­sons. State reg­u­la­tions pre­vent gath­er­ings of more than five peo­ple, wip­ing out prac­tices. A 14-day quar­an­tine peri­od for any­one enter­ing New Mex­i­co ends the hope of hav­ing any games.

To get around the restric­tions, the biggest mon­ey­mak­ing sports at New Mexico’s two largest uni­ver­si­ties took a dras­tic step.

They left.

New Mexico’s foot­ball team was the first to tem­porar­i­ly relo­cate, mov­ing from Albu­querque to the Las Vegas area to prac­tice and play.

New Mex­i­co State’s men’s bas­ket­ball team opt­ed to move from Las Cruces to Phoenix, while the women’s team will prac­tice in Tuc­son and play at a vari­ety of sites.

New Mexico’s two bas­ket­ball teams head­ed to Texas; the men in Lub­bock, the women in Amar­il­lo and Canyon. The Aggies foot­ball team stayed home after the school opt­ed to not play fall sports due to the state’s restrictions.

The moves were not as sim­ple as, hey, let’s go play some­place else.

Relo­cat­ing takes weeks of plan­ning to make sure every­one in the trav­el par­ty is com­fort­able and safe. The move didn’t just involve the play­ers and staff, but also mas­sive loads of equip­ment, from weights and foot­ball shoul­der pads to white boards and Gatorade buckets.

It takes time to set­tle into a rou­tine, adjust to being in a tem­po­rary home. It’s also less com­fort­able in some ways, with no cushy lock­er room, large meet­ing rooms or access to high-tech train­ing rooms.

“It’s char­ac­ter build­ing in a lot of ways,” New Mex­i­co men’s bas­ket­ball coach Paul Weir said. “It’s kind of get­ting used to an iso­lat­ed, very small space kind of life. I think it’s some­thing you learn from and you just have to find what those pos­i­tives hap­pen to be.”

New Mexico’s foot­ball team went straight to Las Vegas after open­ing at San Jose State to avoid hav­ing to quar­an­tine in New Mex­i­co. The Lobos brought weights and oth­er train­ing equip­ment with them, and set up study rooms inside a bub­ble at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa. They’re prac­tic­ing and play­ing at Sam Boyd Sta­di­um, for­mer­ly the home to UNLV foot­ball, while try­ing to adjust.

“This has turned everybody’s world upside down,” New Mex­i­co foot­ball coach Dan­ny Gon­za­les said.

Iso­la­tion on the road togeth­er does have its benefits.

At home, play­ers and coach­es see each oth­er for prac­tices, meet­ings and film ses­sions. Free time is just that for the players.

Being in a bub­ble lim­its what and where the play­ers can go, so there’s more time for meet­ings or even inter­ac­tions with coach­es in hotel com­mon areas.

“It’s pret­ty busy because we still keep the same sched­ule as we would if we were in Albu­querque, but the thing is now that we just get extra meet­ing times with the coach­es,” Lobos quar­ter­back Teva­ka Tui­oti said. “We’re see­ing them 24/7. It’s not like every day see­ing them half the day.”

It’s also been a great bond­ing expe­ri­ence, like NFL teams that trav­el for train­ing camp.

The play­ers are already close and spend plen­ty of time with each oth­er at home. Bub­ble life allows them to bond even more, with more time for epic video game bat­tles, dip­ping in the hot tub or hang­ing around on the grounds.

“It’s been a great expe­ri­ence for us as a team, being able to stay togeth­er all basi­cal­ly in one spot,” McCants said. “We see each oth­er every day, it builds our team chem­istry even more. Being able to prac­tice and not have to trav­el so far and hav­ing every­thing so close is just a good oppor­tu­ni­ty for us.”