March sadness: RMU devastated
Two teams hit hard by cancellation
Robert Morris women’s basketball finished an early shootaround at noon Thursday when a team trainer approached head coach Charlie Buscaglia with the latest: College basketball tournaments were dropping like flies across the country.
The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC canceled their men’s tournaments within a 30minute span in response to the spread and concern over COVID-19, otherwise known as the novel coronavirus. Players and coaches were being directed off courts, ushered into their respective locker rooms. It was an inevitable and odd scene. And at 12:51 p.m., the Northeast Conference announced its women’s tournament got the ax.
Buscaglia — the leader of Robert Morris’ No. 1-seeded squad, a program that was supposed to play host to a conference semifinal game Thursday night at UPMC Events Center without fans — gathered his players and staff to confirm the news and relay the details. At 2 p.m., the Colonials met in their video room, and Buscaglia delivered a message of hope, despite the team’s inability to defend its NEC tournament crown.
“We’re the team that will be going to the NCAA tournament. We’ve earned that,” Buscaglia told his players, who won the regular-season title and orchestrated a 17-1 record in NEC play. “We accomplished so much. It was a historic season. We had the best conference record Robert Morris women’s basketball’s ever had. And we’re going to represent this conference really well in the tournament.
“I could see they were really uplifted, feeling like, ‘Hey, we’re excited for the next opportunity.’ ”
But the Colonials will have to wait a while for that next opportunity.
Two hours after Buscaglia met with his team, the NCAA announced the cancellation of the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring championships.
Pitt can’t send its seven qualified wrestlers to the NCAAs in Minneapolis. Duquesne men’s basketball can’t compete for an automatic bid in the canceled Atlantic 10 tournament. Softball, baseball, track and field, gymnastics and swimming seasons ended prematurely. At Robert Morris, it affects both basketball programs immediately.
The men’s team was bound for March Madness. It was only a few days ago that Andy Toole’s team beat Saint Francis in the NEC men’s championship at UPMC Events Center, 77-67. The Colonials secured what would have been their ninth NCAA tournament appearance, the second under Toole. Robert Morris’ fans stormed the court to celebrate Tuesday night what will now be the lasting memory of the 2019-20 Colonials.
Toole declined an interview request from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday evening but issued the following statement on the NCAA’s decision to cancel the men’s tournament:
“We as a program understand the importance of keeping everyone safe and healthy, but it’s disappointing we won’t have the chance to compete in the NCAA tournament. We hurt for our senior class in Josh [Williams], Yannis [Mendy] and Sayveon [McEwen], as well as their teammates, who put all of their effort and determination into helping us win a Northeast Conference championship. I will always be proud of having had the opportunity to coach this group.”
Buscaglia offered a similar sentiment of disappointment.
“We were playing at home with a chance to get back to the NCAA tournament. And being the regular-season champion and 17-1, we were looked at as the favorite,” Buscaglia said of his team’s automatic bid prospects. “And now that’s not happening.”
The Robert Morris women’s coach also sympathized with Nneka Ezeigbo, his program’s lone senior. Ezeigbo — the NEC’s 2018-19 defensive player of the year and the conference tournament’s MVP a year ago — likely played her final collegiate game Monday night.
Now, Buscaglia admitted it was a “great last game memory, if that was it for her.” Ezeigbo recorded 16 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals in Robert Morris’ overtime win against Wagner at home. But ideally, Ezeigbo gets another crack at finishing her career in the NCAA tournament.
In an appearance on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said Thursday he supports the idea of extending additional eligibility to seniors. The legendary coach said the coronavirus pandemic is an “unprecedented event, so you have to take unprecedented measures.”
When posed with the idea, Buscaglia also supported it, saying Ezeigbo and the Colonials had “no control over” how her career — and Robert Morris’ season — ended.
“I would like them to look at that. I really would,” Buscaglia said. “I’m not going to sit there and make demands and be angry over it. But I think it’s something to look at. It’s unfinished business.”
The NCAA is planning to extend the eligibility of athletes on spring sports teams by one year to make up for the season lost to the outbreak. No word if that would be extended to the incomplete winter seasons.