Due to the national outbreak of the coronavirus, the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were canceled in an unprecedented action Thursday.
Additionally, all other NCAA women’s and men’s winter and spring championships were canceled. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament was scheduled to start Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, while the women’s tournament was scheduled to start March 20.
Ranked in the top five in the Associated Press polls, Baylor coach Kim Mulkey’s women’s basketball team and Scott Drew’s men’s basketball team had their eyes set on winning national championships.
“I don’t like it for Kim when you think of the competitive piece and an opportunity to compete,” said Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades. “I feel terrible for Scott. The program had a chance to do something it has never done before (win a national championship). Yet we all understand this is bigger than athletics. But that doesn’t make that emotion go away. It doesn’t change that, right? That’s just being really honest.”
This marks the first year the NCAA men’s tournament will not be played since its inception in 1939. That year, the event featured only eight teams with Oregon beating Ohio State to win the first championship.
The women’s tournament has been held since 1982 when Mulkey was a star point guard who helped Louisiana Tech beat Cheyney State for the national championship.
Rhoades thought the NCAA might suspend the tournament for several weeks as officials monitored the coronavirus outbreak, but understands the NCAA’s decision to act quickly and cancel it.
“I think we were all hoping for a suspension,” Rhoades said. “To suspend and see where we are two or three weeks from now and then re-evaulate But you’re in a position where because of what’s at stake you have to be conservative through the process.
“I certainly don’t have all the facts behind it,” Rhoades said. “It seems like given what’s happened in the last 24 hours and how quickly this transpired and all the different cancellations, it certainly seems it was the prudent decision .”
A game official at the Colonial Athletic Association tournament tested positive for the coronavirus, which could have played a part in the NCAA’s decision on Thursday afternoon.
“This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities,” the NCAA said in a statement.
Coming off last year’s third national title under Mulkey, the Lady Bears were seeking a repeat championship. They’re ranked No. 3 in the AP poll with a 28-2 overall record. They won their 10th straight Big 12 championship with a 17-1 record and were a lock to earn a No. 1 NCAA regional seed.
The No. 5 Baylor men’s basketball team enjoyed its most successful regular season in 17 years under Drew with a 26-4 overall record and a 15-3 Big 12 mark as the Bears finished second behind Kansas.
The Bears were No. 1 in the AP poll for a school-record five straight weeks before their Big 12-record 23-game winning streak was snapped with a 64-61 loss to Kansas on Feb. 22 at the Ferrell Center.
“Student-athlete safety is always our highest priority, so I understand the decision to cancel the 2020 NCAA tournament,” Drew said. “But I’m disappointed that our team won’t have the opportunity to finish what was arguably the best season in program history. We were likely going to get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, which is something we’ve worked for all season. To have that abruptly taken away by something out of our control is devastating for our team, coaches and fans.”
The NCAA’s decision not to play the men’s and women’s tournaments came hours after Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby announced the league would cancel the rest of its tournaments in Kansas City.
The Big 12’s decision to cancel came less than 24 hours after it had announced that the league would play Thursday through Sunday without fans at both the men’s tournament at the Sprint Center and the women’s tournament at Municipal Auditorium.
“It’s just a collective feeling of sadness,” Bowlsby said. “I mean everybody gets jazzed up for this tournament, and it’s a great sporting event. There are the practical aspects of it, we’ll need to work with our television partners on adjusting our rights fees. Then we will be refunding the ticket sales, so it has some fairly substantial financial components to it.”
The Big 12’s decision to cancel the tournament came shortly after Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas issued a state of emergency for the city amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.
The state of emergency was issued for an initial period of 21 days. The decision was made with input from KCMO Health Department director Dr. Rex Archer and Emergency Medical Services Medical director Dr. Erica Carney.
“Once the mayor declared a state of emergency it hastened our discussions, and we spent time with our board of directors this morning who ultimately made the decision to cancel the tournament,” Bowlsby said.
The first two games of the Big 12 men’s tournament were played at the Sprint Center as planned Wednesday night with fans in attendance, as Oklahoma State beat Iowa State and Kansas State beat TCU.
The Big 12’s announcement Thursday morning came just before Texas Tech and Texas were scheduled to meet in the quarterfinals. No. 2-seeded Baylor was scheduled to play Kansas State in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m.
The Baylor women’s basketball team canceled its flight from Waco to Kansas City on Thursday morning.
The first round of the women’s tournament was scheduled to start Thursday night. The No. 1-seeded Lady Bears were scheduled to play Friday at 1:30 p.m. against the winner of Thursday night’s game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
“We believe this is the right thing, but I feel terrible for the seniors that are involved in this tournament,” Bowlsby said. “You know it’s unfortunate that this could be the last basketball that they’re going to have a chance to play as college kids, and so I feel particularly bad for the players.”
Like the Big 12, conferences across the country canceled their tournaments, including the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC amid growing concerns over the coronavirus. In some cases, such as with the Big Ten, players had already begun warming up for their games before the decisions were made.
The Big East started a quarterfinal game between St. John’s and Creighton at Madison Square Garden in New York City before announcing at halftime that the rest of the league tournament would be canceled.
The wave of tournament cancellations came on the heels of the NBA suspending play indefinitely Wednesday night after two Utah Jazz players tested positive for the coronavirus.
“We just felt that in the interest of heeding the advice we were hearing and being conservative with everybody’s best health, that cancellation was the right outcome for both our men’s and women’s tournaments,” Bowlsby said. “Many of the others around the country have decided likewise, and I think in many ways we relied on one another, and we were able to extend the discussions we each have with our presidents and chancellors and athletic directors.”
Bowlsby said all Big 12 championships will be canceled until April 15, including gymnastics in Morgantown, W. Va., on March 21, and equestrian which was scheduled March 27-28 at Baylor’s Willis Family Equestrian Center.
The Big 12 also announced that beginning Friday it is suspending all regular-season competitions, on- and off-campus recruiting, and out-of-season practices until March 29.
“I think the advice that has been out there for a long time has been keep your distance from folks and avoid public assembly if you can,” Bowlsby said. “Those messages have gotten stronger and stronger all the time.”
— WACOTRIB