The 2020 SEC tournament after its cancellation. Mar 13, 2020; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; The scoreboard at Bridgestone Arena is seen through a basket and net following the cancellation of the SEC mens basketball tournament due to concerns over the Covid 19 coronavirus. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Part V: The NCAA Tournament is canceled

PART I: COVID discussions leading up to the tournament
PART II: COVID news spreads further, fan attendance gets canceled
PART III: Rudy Gobert’s test leads to sports cancellations
PART IV: The SEC Tournament is canceled
PART V: The NCAA Tournament is canceled

Just hours after other major conference tournament cancellations, the NCAA Tournament was officially canceled, along with all remaining winter and spring sport championships. It turned March Madness into March Sadness. Players, coaches and fans have the realization sink in that the season is over. For the first time since 1939 there would not be a men’s or women’s basketball team crowned as national champions.

Steven Pearl, assistant coach, Auburn men’s basketball: We tell the guys, we’re going to go back to the hotel, get our stuff and head home. And then, a couple hours later, the NCAA Tournament gets canceled. Obviously at that point once that hit, it was really tough because we had five seniors–really six if you count Isaac (Okoro) because Isaac was going to the NBA– whose seasons/college careers were literally just ended because of a virus, a pandemic. Who could’ve expected that to happen?

Dan Leibovitz, associate commissioner for men’s basketball, SEC: The NCAA didn’t really give the conferences a heads up that I remember. That was kind of a sticking point, so that basically was the end. That kind of made the decision for us, but there was not a soft landing on that. It was like we read a press release or something and it was over. When could you ever think about a year without an NCAA Tournament?

Allen Greene, athletic director, Auburn: I think [the communication] can always be better, and I sit here as a leader saying communication can always be better, hindsight is always 20/20. I think it was a challenging time where we’re all trying to figure out what’s going on, and each location around the country was in different situations and circumstances. There’s a phrase that says all politics are local, so if there’s a part of the country that isn’t feeling the effects of COVID, they’re treating life differently than those who are. I don’t know how the communication could’ve been better, but it could’ve been.

Morgan Weinbrecht, associate director, Turner Sports: When it first hit, it was surreal. There are very few times in your life where you remember hearing news and remember where you were. To the day that I die, I will remember sitting exactly where I was. I even remember what room number I was in in the Milwaukee hotel when all of this started to happen, and it was absolutely insane.

Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, and member of the NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panel: We still did not know enough about COVID at the time to adequately predict the seriousness of the outcome. However, we felt that any basketball tournaments including the annual March Madness tournament should not take place.

Lior Berman, guard, Auburn men’s basketball: So my freshman year, there was something… you know, this year there’s an energy you feel about the team, but I felt that about my freshman year team. I know that if COVID didn’t happen we would’ve gone very far, and it sucks what happened. I didn’t travel to the SEC Tournament, but I know everyone else did and I just know that they were super down, especially the seniors.

I can’t imagine it’s your last year, you’re on a good team and you’re getting there, and then all of a sudden, it’s taken away from you. I just really felt for them. And they all handled it very well, which I think is very hard to do.

Schaffner: I had participated in other responses to local and national spreads of diseases prior to COVID. Zika virus, West Nile virus, Ebola, the list goes on and on. COVID clearly separated itself from these other diseases in its ability to spread and its potential to last much longer. So that was sobering.

Victoria Cumbow, Auburn class of 2008: I think they made the best decision they could make with the information that they had at the time.

Jacob Hillman, president, The Jungle (Auburn basketball student section): That was really tough because I thought this team had a great chance of making a run. We were coming off a Final Four, this team looked even better in the regular season, we had a first-round lottery draft pick in Isaac Okoro, and you had seniors like Samir Doughty, J’Von McCormick, Austin Wiley, Anfernee McLemore and Danjel Purifoy. It was tough because you wanted those guys to get one last chance at the tournament and you wanted to see Isaac Okoro play in the tournament for the one time he had the chance to, but you didn’t get to. Devastating is the word to say. I’m not overselling it or underselling it, it was just tough.

The week had come to an end, leaving the NCAA no choice but to cancel all athletics for the remainder of the season. After a week unlike any other, the dust had finally settled across the NCAA. Athletes and coaches tried to wrap their heads around everything that happened over the previous four days.

Leibovitz: I think it was the [school] presidents [making the decision to cancel all athletics]. You’ve got larger decisions than competing, we’re basically in a shutdown with the schools. So I think at that point, it’s probably presidential, and then relaying things to the ADs.

Cody Voga, assistant athletics director for athletic communications at Ball State University; Auburn Basketball SID in 2020: We were working remotely throughout the entire summer. They made it clear, don’t come into the office. That day was really the start of packing up, making sure you had your computer, your charger, or anything else you needed to work from home because we didn’t know how long it was going to be.

Lior Berman, guard, Auburn men’s basketball: Looking back, it taught me to not take things for granted, because you don’t know when things could be taken away from you. So, I just learned a lot of lessons to give it your all. Because you don’t know when it could be your last time you’re doing something.

The interviews for this oral history were conducted by the students of an advanced sports reporting class at Auburn University, under the direction of journalism professor John Carvalho. The students who conducted the interviews were Olivia Achille (Steven Pearl), Trevor Culligan (Devan Cambridge), Maxwell Gault (Cody Voga), Ellie Gillis (Dr. Michael Goodlett), Jacob Goins (Adam Sparks), Alex Husting (Dan Leibovitz), Matt Johnson (Dr. William Schaffner), Katelyn Kirby (Jimmy Dykes), Ian Logue (Morgan Wienbrecht), Brendan McLaughlin (Justin Lee), Larry Robinson (Lior Berman), Harrison Schoolar (Allen Greene), Justin Trausch (Jacob Hillman), and Jake Weese (Victoria Cumbow). Carolyn Craig and Dylan Larck also participated in the information gathering for this project. The students and Dr. Carvalho would like to thank everyone who took time out from their busy schedules to do the interviews.

Top photo from Christopher Hanewinckel/USA Today Sports. Graphics and editing by Andrew Bucholtz, The Comeback.

Also see previous oral histories from Carvalho’s classes on Masters media coverage and the NCAA Tournament.

PART I: COVID discussions leading up to the tournament
PART II: COVID news spreads further, fan attendance gets canceled
PART III: Rudy Gobert’s test leads to sports cancellations
PART IV: The SEC Tournament is canceled
PART V: The NCAA Tournament is canceled