The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Abrupt end for UConn, Yale
Following the lead of professional sports leagues and college conferences, the NCAA on Thursday canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments along with the rest of its winter and spring seasons, because of growing concern over the spread of coronavirus.
This unprecedented decision came hours after most of the NCAA’s conferences had axed their tournaments and the majority of professional sports leagues had suspended operations.
The impact of canceling March Madness was felt throughout the country, including Connecticut.
The UConn women were expected to host the first two rounds of their tournament next weekend at Gampel Pavilion in their quest for a 12th national championship and 13th straight Final Four appearance. Attendance was to be limited to “essential staff” and family. Instead, the Huskies will finish their season 29-3 and with dreams unfulfilled.
On the men’s side, Yale earned an automatic bid after the Ivy League canceled its tournament on Tuesday, the first Division I conference to do so.
“This is incredibly disappointing in so many ways for so many people,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said in a statement. “The players, first and foremost, as well as every fan in the
country. This is especially disappointing for our five seniors. They have been working so hard for this opportunity. We’ve been playing our best basketball these past six games and I’m sure they were looking forward to their final March Madness.
“Having said that, I absolutely agree 100 percent with this decision. The welfare of our studentathletes supersedes any missed opportunity to compete in any sport. Sacrificing what’s good for a few for the greater good of many is what teamwork is all about.”
In an interview earlier in the day on ESPN, Auriemma said this decision seemed inevitable after NBA players Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz tested positive for coronavirus. The NBA has suspended its season indefinitely in hopes of curbing the outbreak.
“How can we justify putting our players out there and having something happen to them?,” Auriemma said on ESPN. “I don’t know that we want to be responsible for that. Because right now, every parent of every child wants them to play in the NCAA Tournament. Unless all of a sudden it’s their son or their daughter that somehow contracts this and then it’s somebody’s fault, you know in the world we live in”
The Bulldogs finished first in the Ivy League at 11-3 and were 23-7 overall, making the NCAA tournament for the second straight season and third time since 2016.
“Some of the games that we had to come back to win, the fortitude our guys showed, it was brilliant, and I couldn’t be prouder of them” Yale coach James Jones said. “It is sad that their season ends this way, but everybody’s season is going to end somewhere. You would prefer as an athlete and as a competitor that it would happen on the court and that it would be decided that way, and such is not the case. But being a rational person, I understand why.”
Hoping to carve out their own path to the Big Dance, the UConn men were supposed to begin play in the American Athletic Conference tournament against Tulane on Thursday afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas.
But the tournament was called off just a few hours before they had a chance.
“It’s been a really surreal last 24 hours, from when we landed and headed over to Dickies Arena,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said on a conference call. “As a coaching staff, and as a university … I think (Wednesday) night, we had a pretty good sense that when we woke up today, there was potential for this.”
Of course, basketball wasn’t the only sport affected. There also won’t be championships in hockey or other winter sports, as well as baseball, lacrosse or softball in the spring.
The ECAC had already canceled its men’s hockey tournament earlier on Thursday, wiping out Quinnipiac’s playoff series with Princeton. The Bobcats had been scheduled to play rival Yale in a best-of-three series, but Yale withdrew from the tournament.
Sacred Heart was slated to host an Atlantic Hockey playoff series against Robert Morris at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport beginning Thursday night and UConn was scheduled to visit Maine in a Hockey East quarterfinal this weekend. But the conference canceled those events before the NCAA’s decision.
What happens next is uncertain, but UConn already has suspended all athletic activities indefinitely.
“The health and wellbeing of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans is always our highest priority … These changes have been implemented in consultation with state of Connecticut and University leadership and the American Athletic Conference,” the school said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor the developing situation and issue updates as necessary.”
The decision by the NCAA culminated a whirlwind few days in college sports. As various conferences moved ahead with tournament games — mostly played in empty arenas — others canceled not only tournaments but spring sports. In Atlantic City, the MAAC basketball tournament was starting amid talk of a shutdown. Fairfield women’s basketball coach Joe Frager said his staff kept his players away from their phones in an effort to keep the focus on the Stags’ noon game against Siena. Fairfield won the game, advancing to the tournament’s semifinals.
In Texas, Hurley said he did not sleep well as he prepared for Thursday’s game with Tulane. After the cancellation, he was hit with the realization that his season — and the career of senior Christian Vital, and possibly fourth-year junior Alterique Gilbert — is over.
“You do get robbed of the opportunity to walk off the court with the people you’ve gone to battle with one last time,” Hurley said. “That’s an emotional experience. Not having that last locker room experience whether in victory or defeat is tough.”
This will be the first time a men’s basketball champion is not crowned since the tournament began in 1939. It will also be the first time a women’s championship has not been decided since the NCAA began staging that tournament in 1982.
The men’s tournament has evolved into a cultural event, drawing interest from all corners of the sports fandom. It’s also an immense revenue source of college athletics, generating an estimated $867.5 million from TV and marketing rights.
Yet the NCAA had no choice but halt the tournament before it began.
“The way things have gone over the last 10 days it seemed like it was inevitable in some respects,” Jones said. “Holding out hope in some capacity that we would still be able to do this for the young men and women around the country who have put so much time and effort for it, but if you think about the security of the country and what we are going through, it only makes sense.”
Jim Fuller and Paul Doyle contributed to this report
dbonjour@ctpost.com; @DougBonjour