SPORTS JUST STOPPED
Inside one of the last college games before coronavirus halt
The plan was to cover a college basketball tournament, but the coronavirus got in the way.
On Wednesday, my cosports editor, Austin Ferguson, and I made the 99 mile trek to Atlantic City to cover the Rider University men’s and women’s basketball teams in the MetrLeto Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament for The Rider News, the university’s student newspaper.
Going down the Atlantic City Expressway, I thought, “What if the women’s basketball team made it to the finals?” They had a real chance as the No. 1 seed and with the nation’s leading scorer in senior guard Stella Johnson.
Unfortunately, they never got that chance. The Rider men’s team didn’t even get the opportunity to take the court.
The coronavirus — the global pandemic — caused the sports world to take a timeout.
I wrote a game recap on the women’s basketball team’s 7974 quarterfinal victory over Niagara University. I interviewed head coach Lynn Milligan and senior forward Lea Favre along with Johnson in the postgame presser.
There would be no men’s game story to write.
It was during the first half of the men’s quarterfinal game between Iona and Saint Peter’s on Wednesday night, when things really started to get interesting. Multiple conferences canceled their postseason tournaments. Then the NBA rocked the sports world by announcing it was suspending operations after Utah Jazz All-Star Rudy Gobert became the first pro player to test positive for the virus.
This all happened within 20 minutes. It was hard to keep up with all that was happening.
As for the MAAC, first they said no more fans moving forward. The conference made the official announcement around 10 p.m. Wednesday night.
A hush fell over the crowd as the public address announcer relayed the statement to the crowd. Then gasps could be heard.
Austin and I went back to the Tropicana Hotel and were glued to our phones to see which conference would fold next. The small conferences fell easily, but didn’t get much national attention.
On Thursday morning, Austin and I went down the elevator of our hotel and were greeted by a couple wearing Marist gear.
“Are you family of any players?” I asked.
“We should be [family],” the woman joked. She said neither of them even attended the college but worked in the Poughkeepsie area and were longtime fans of the program. These were two fans who could no longer attend games as only family, staff and media would be allowed in.
We walked through the corridors of Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall and I filmed a video attempting to capture the eerie atmosphere. It was an awkward silence. I could hear people’s conversations.
“This could be it,” I said to myself. “The tournament could really end after today.”
I spoke with multiple reporters and the consensus was that the MAAC would cancel the tournament after the current game.
The Power Five conferences were dropping like flies. The Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12, ACC (and eventually the Big East). They all canceled. They got national attention.
I saw a Sports Illustrated story tweeted at 12:35 p.m. with the caption “The Big East is the only conference continuing its basketball tournament despite the coronavirus outbreak.” Except that was wrong. The Fairfield and Siena women’s teams were still playing at that point.
That’s when I realized Austin and I were watching one of the last college basketball games to be played this season (Fairfield won). The only other game still being played was in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
“Austin, 2:30. There’s going to be a press conference with [MAAC commissioner] Rich [Ensor] at 2:30,” I told him. At that point, I knew it was going to be canceled. It was our turn to break the news.
The adrenaline rush of trying to inform the public of what was going on was surreal for a young reporter.
My right leg was shaking because I knew what was going to happen before others did. I was anxious to share the inevitable information when it became official.
“It’s a tough day for sports with this country facing a major crisis,” Ensor said in his opening statement. “I just came from the locker rooms of the Manhattan and Quinnipiac teams [who were scheduled to tipoff at 2:30 p.m.] to let them know the season’s been canceled.
“The tournament’s been canceled effective immediately.” Boom. Tweet. Send. I was part of the group that broke the news of the tournament being canceled.
“We are obviously devastated,” Milligan later told me via email. “Our seniors have been outstanding and my heart is breaking for them.”
When Ensor’s press conference ended, we bolted to the media workroom to write.
We posted our stories and walked back to the hotel when we thought things had died down.
We were still on the boardwalk when the biggest domino of them all fell.
“Oh my God the NCAA Tournament has been canceled,” I said in utter shock.
We practically ran back to the hotel. Our work wasn’t done.
Dylan Manfre is from Metuchen, N.J. and a sophomore journalism major at Rider and the co-sports editor of The Rider News.