MAC, others nix tournaments

One day after it began, the Mid-American Conference Tournament ended at Rocket Mortgage Field House.

On March 12, before the first of four scheduled men’s quarterfinal games, MAC commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher announced the conference was cancelling the remainder of the tournament’s scheduled run through March 14.

The announcement came on the heels of similar announcements on March 12 by the Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference and other Division I conferences.

It also followed the National Basketball Association’s announcement on March 11 that it was suspending regular-season play.

All of these cancellation are tied to growing public concern over the spread of the novel coronavirus, also called COVID-19.

“We have been meeting all morning with our athletic athletic and presidents talking about what is the appropriate path forward,” Steinbrecher said during a news conference at the downtown Cleveland arena that has hosted the MAC tournaments since 2000.

“We’ve also been paying attention to what is going on around us, both in the world at large and the sports world.,” Steinbrecher added. “We’ve seen a number of conferences making the decision to cancel. We have come to the same conclusion.”

Steinbrecher said it was “incredibly disappointing” to have to end the tournament because it means so much to the players, coaches and fans.

The women’s quarterfinals were played at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on March 11 with no fans allowed inside the arena and access limited to players, coaches, school officials and credentialed media.

That format was in place on March 12 as players from Akron and Ohio were on the court warming up before their scheduled noon tipoff. That was pushed back to 1 p.m. before the final decision was made to cancel. Another complicating factor for the MAC Tournament arose after Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, players on the NBA’s Utah Jazz, tested positive for COVID-19.

The Jazz played the Cavs at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on March 2.

Steinbrecher and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse CEO Len Komorowski said an extensive examination of maintenance records pointed toward the visitors locker room and other areas used by the Jazz having been repeatedly cleaned since then.

If the MAC tournaments had continued, however, that locker room would have been taken out of service.

DAVID S. GLASIER — THE NEWS-HERALD MAC Tournament signage comes down at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse minutes after the conference canceled the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments over COVID-19 concerns.