Reaction says NCAA did right thing canceling tournaments
The NCAA did the right thing on Thursday when it canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournament. The governing body had no choice. Under the current national circumstances, there was no way the tournament could go on, with or without fans.
There was a lot of talk Thursday night about why the tournament couldn’t just be postponed instead of canceled. The logistics of that, however, would be a nightmare, especially considering the other major sports leagues have all either canceled or postponed events. There’s too much uncertainty now, as it is.
I think it’s different for the state high school basketball tournaments in Kentucky. Commissioner Julian Tackett said Thursday that perhaps the tournaments could be held at a later time. Maybe over a couple of weeks in the summer? We’ll see.
There are other far more important things to deal with first. If nothing else, that’s what the last few days have taught us. Sports are fun. Real life is important. Our health is important. And we must do whatever it takes to protect both.
Here’s a sample of reaction to the NCAA Tournament cancellations:
Sports provides a refuge, but blurred our vision — Jerry Brewer of the Washington Post writes, “It finally feels real now, huh? It feels scary, too. And awkward. Unprecedented. Historic. Dire. The coronavirus, which felt distant and overblown and annoying to many, penetrated our sports bubble during a wild and unforgettable couple of days.”
Chaos showed NCAA’s fractured relationship with its own — Dan Wolken of USA Today writes, “As American Athletic Conference administrators and officials met Thursday morning in Dallas to decide whether their men’s basketball tournament would go on as planned, a question came up: What were they hearing from Dan Gavitt?”
Duke president stopped ACC Tourney — Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News and Observer writes, “Finally, belatedly, Vincent Price was the adult in the room. The Duke president was the only one who would put his foot down and say “no.” That proceeding with the ACC tournament was the wrong move. That going ahead — like the Big East — even as the Big Ten and the Big 12 and the SEC and the Pac-12 and Conference USA and the WAC all canceled the rest of their tournaments was not only unwise but unfathomable.”
The reviled NCAA performed a public service — Mark Bradley of the AJC writes, “The cancellation of the Big Dance became inevitable after the NBA suspended its season Wednesday night and all conferences aborted their tournaments. (The Big East managed to play half of a game before seeing the light. For the record, St. John’s led Creighton 38-35.) The more you thought about it, the more you wondered: If COVID-19 was so dire as to force the NCAA to bar fans from clustering, why wasn’t it dire enough to keep players from sharing a plane, a bus, a 94-foot court?”
Sports is listening to the power of the unknown — Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register writes, “In times like these, you hear the words of the great John Chaney. ‘You’ve got the known and you’ve got the unknown,’ he said when he was coaching Temple basketball. ‘So you take care of the known, and leave the unknown alone.’ Chaney was talking about the method of guarding Missouri when Steve Stipanovich and Jon Sundvold were the stars. He could have been talking about any sliver of our lives, from finance to family to romance. This week, the unknown has removed the protective seal from American life.”
Most powerful men in sports are powerless against COVID-19 — Rick Bozich of WDRB writes, “John Swofford is a wise and powerful man, the driving force in making the Atlantic Coast Conference as dynamic as any major college sports league. But on Thursday morning, Swofford tried to answer questions nobody could answer, not even a respected titan who typically has every answer. This time, like everybody, Swofford didn’t even have the questions. It showed.”
No tournament is hard to deal with — Gary Parrish of CBS Sports writes, “The official announcement didn’t come until Thursday at 4:16 p.m. ET. But, for all intents and purposes, the 2020 NCAA Tournament was effectively canceled roughly 16 hours earlier. It was over the moment Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus. That’s the long and short of it.”
Even March Madness no match for coronavirus — Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press writes, “They haven’t failed to stage an SEC men’s basketball tourney since it was resurrected in 1979 after a 25-year absence. How. Can. This. Be? Only the reason for this disruption, it turned out, had nothing to do with Kentucky’s domination of the league, as was the case in 1954, even if both the Wildcats and their Big Blue Nation still pretty much rule the event. No, this was because of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which reportedly has killed nearly 5,000 people worldwide and infected more than 133,000. At least 39 people in the United States had died as of Thursday afternoon, with more than 1,300 infected.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 8:08 AM.
