What is happening isn’t fair. That’s a large part of how I feel. I’m not saying that I think any decisions that were made were wrong. I just hate that a freak set of circumstances denied so many players, coaches, and fans in all divisions of all sports the chance to finish their seasons and play in their championship events.
I’ll be honest, when I first started hearing about the coronavirus I was a little concerned, but it was still very easy to dismiss. I felt the same when it showed up in the United States. I felt the same when it proved to be fatal for some that contracted it. I was sorry for what happened to them, but I still only thought of it as individual tragedies and not a national crisis. I even felt that way when Chicago State and Kansas City opted not to travel to Seattle for their regular season games. I admit that I was flippant about it on some of our shows and on Twitter. I was wrong. COVID-19 is a serious problem. While a large part of me feels what is happening isn’t fair, I also respect why the conferences and the NCAA decided to cancel everything moving forward.
Whatever it is you are feeling about this…scared, angry, cheated, concerned, supportive, or whatever, I think you have a right to feel that way. Over the past year or two, I’ve come to find (oftentimes to my surprise) that there are various people with strong ties to college basketball who follow this site. For those who were directly impacted by the NCAA Tournament being cancelled, it is you that I and everyone else who works on this site feels for the most. We all love watching your teams play, and we are all incredibly sorry that you will not get the chance to have that experience this year. For us, we are just fans. I wasn’t good enough to even play on my junior high team, much less for a div1 college team. Games will be back on in November, and we’ll be back doing what we do throughout the season next year. As sad as we are that The Tournament is cancelled and we won’t get to do the things that are fun for us, that’s not really important. We have the rest of our lives to be fans. It’s the players and coaches that we feel for the most.
In addition to being a former bad junior high basketball player, I’m also not a physician or high level science scholar. What I do understand about the coronavirus/COVID-19 is that we are in the contagion stage and not into the full blown infectious stage. It is a respiratory virus, which is spread through respiratory droplets and vapors. In a sport like basketball where players are breathing heavily, and in each others faces, and sweating, and basically producing a maximum amount of “respiratory vapors,” there is a high level of concern of how one player who is infected could cause so many others to become infected. I get that. I also get that while the disease is not terminal in most people, particularly college-aged athletes, it is potentially terminal for a certain demographic of people. In order to mitigate the infection stage, it is important to contain the contagion stage as much as possible. That is why I agree with the thought process of cancelling these large gatherings even though I hate that it has to happen.
I also noticed that the NCAA was basically the last organization to announce any sort of cancelation. I would like to think that they were exhausting all possible options to try and figure out a way to play the NCAA Tournament and give everyone a safe, exciting, and meaningful experience. It wasn’t until that they felt it was impossible to pull off that they finally announced it was cancelled. I do know that they did not make the decision arbitrarily. They consulted with medical experts and heeded their advice. That may not be much of a consolation to some people, particularly the players and coaches, but I do feel like they acted as the experts in the medical community advised them to act.
It’s fun being David Griggs. It really is. I think it reminds me of why I love this sport, and really all college sports, so much. I don’t gamble, or play fantasy sports, or play video games, or have any really expensive hobbies, or anything like that. I do this. I love the sport to the point to where I have to do more than just watch it, and Hoops HD allows for me to have that outlet. I have a blast doing it with all the people who contribute to the site, not just in March, but all year long. We actually have formed a strong bond as fellow college hoops junkies, I’m sad that we can’t collectively have our annual Selection Committee and NCAA Tournament experience. But, we will be back! If making these decisions can help save lives, help the medical community get in front of this as we head into the infection stage, and help get us back to our normal routines sooner rather than later, then I can understand and agree with why it was done.
Be safe! Stay Healthy! See ya soon!!