Big Ten Tournament Canceled
The Big Ten Tournament is off:
The Big Ten Tournament is cancelled.
— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) March 12, 2020
Wash your hands as you contemplate this news. When and if the NCAA tournament will proceed is now in serious doubt. There is no more content after the jump.
March 12th, 2020 at 11:59 AM ^
I'm gonna do the responsible thing and self quarantine. At least I'll have some good basketball to waaaaaaaht the fuck
Every time I hear "self quarantine", I think of this.
He wasn’t master of his domain.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:01 PM ^
You'd think there was no way the NCAA would happen when the NBA is shut down. Professional players can't play but amateurs can? One player gets sick and the NCAA is done.
That said...it's the NCAA.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:25 PM ^
How the NCAA didn't tell the Big East to cancel is beyond me. Isn't there a quarantine of an entire neighborhood near NYC?
The NCAA didn't tell anyone to cancel--reinforcing how repugnant an organization it is.
Well aaaaaaakkkshually it's a town in the suburbs, and it's not a quarantine in the sense that nobody there is allowed to leave. Instead large gatherings within the town are banned, and they've closed places where such things gatherings might happen, such as schools, places of worship, etc.
But yeah the NCAA should have cancelled the Big East.
Read that in Oscars voice.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:05 PM ^
DAMN YOU RUDY GOBERT!!!
March 12th, 2020 at 12:07 PM ^
Trident is cursed
March 12th, 2020 at 12:12 PM ^
I'd be amazed if the NCAA doesn't announce a cancellation of the tournament by tomorrow.
Men everywhere are canceling with their urologists as I type this.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:13 PM ^
Shit, I had this time blocked off to not work.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:15 PM ^
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
March 12th, 2020 at 12:23 PM ^
NCAA:
March 12th, 2020 at 12:24 PM ^
Playing the games without a crowd had minimal risk, but now they're missing the chance to spread messages about public health to millions of people who'd be watching at home.
Also Rudy Gobert is an idiot.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:27 PM ^
I must have missed that part of the story. What did he do? Play sick?
March 12th, 2020 at 12:39 PM ^
He mocked the procedures in place and ran around touching everyone's stuff, spreading the disease.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:58 PM ^
Yikes. I have my own theories on why, but people at my place of work don't really seem to be taking it all that seriously either. I work in healthcare and my boss still has me treating people with flu like symptoms instead of simply cancelling their appointments. Putting everyone at risk for a few dollars.
Not to be a dick, but if you don't want to treat people who are sick because they might infect you with their sickness, you probably shouldn't work in healthcare?
Haha, I probably should have clarified. I work in a field unrelated to flu and Covid -19 and well outside my scope of practice. Its an orthopedic therapy setting, so we try to keep those with active viruses and infections away from our otherwise healthy population. Crazy to think about it, but the healthcare industry actually involves more than doctors and hospitals! Thanks for your input though.
Playing the games without a crowd had a minimal risk to fans, but I imagine if you're a player you might not want to play in any tournament right now where you're rubbing sweaty bodies for two hours at a time. I mean, B10 tournament would essentially be a petri dish of 14 teams with players, coaches, trainers, staff, plus refs, announcers, etc.
I'm sure the risk is still small overall, but Utah Jazz just learned two of their players have Coronavirus, so imagine being a player on that team, or any team the Jazz played in the last week or so. Or any team that played another team that played the Jazz in the last week or so.
And these 18-22 year olds would almost surely recover/be fine, unless they have some immunodeficiency. Same with the NBA players.
Like anyone else, however, they can become carriers and propagate its transmission, which inevitably would mean transmission to more seniors.
Given that they've already traveled and interacted with hotel & food staff, I'm guessing the marginal risk of playing the games would be minimal. But perhaps it's valuable as a symbolic act of a voluntary quarantine; these types of actions taken by everyone going forward will slow the spread.
For those like Simpson & Teske, giving up your last Tourney, that's taking one for the team.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:27 PM ^
statement from B1G:
”The main priority of the Big Ten Conference continues to be the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes, coaches, administrators, fans and media as we continue to monitor all developing and relevant information on the COVID-19 virus”
https://admin.bigten.org/news/2020/3/12/mens-basketball-big-ten-conference-statement.aspx
March 12th, 2020 at 12:45 PM ^
"Which is why we waited ten minutes until tipoff to use the information we had days in advance to cancel. It was until we realized that the bad press would outweigh the money we would make, that we must cancel this event"
Well, this statement will be put to the test if the NCAAs are not canceled. Of course, I'm assuming it will be.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:28 PM ^
Fuck the Big Ten.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:33 PM ^
The media did a great job of causing panic. America will come back stronger than ever.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:38 PM ^
Thanks for weighing in, Donald.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:46 PM ^
You know this virus isn't just in America...right?
Entire countries have been shut down
March 12th, 2020 at 12:48 PM ^
It's all the gotdamn Italian media's fault!
/s
Indeed, I saw on TV that it’s a foreign virus.
Which could have been easily prevented by a wall
When all else fail, blame the media. Moron
Please tell us you forgot the s/ . . .
March 12th, 2020 at 12:33 PM ^
Unlike everyone else on the internet I'm not an immunology expert, but this seems like a great idea. The best thing everyday people can do right now besides washing your hands before pawing at strangers' faces is minimize contact with crowds to mitigate proliferation. Since we cannot (nor should we) weld people into buildings or herd people into sanitation camps like they do in China, this is the next best thing. It's obviously going to affect us all and it's not going to be fun, but any containment can only help. We're well past the point of avoiding a one-day story becoming a one-week story, but just maybe we can keep a three-month story from becoming an eight-month story.
The more you contain the spread from the outset, the easier it is for us to manage, and then the sooner we can get back to not wiping our asses.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
Really senseless to cancel this. The players aren't just gonna stay home and not be in contact with people. They'll just be contacting with people in society. Barring the fans make sense, this doesn't. This is the stuff that makes the American psyche more panicky. The sports world reaction to this virus has been pathetic.
By "American", do you mean the entire world? The U.S. isn't the first country to cancel sporting events to combat the spread of this virus.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:41 PM ^
How is playing in an empty gym with no fans more of a risk than doing anything else in public? I guess I don’t understand why canceling this tournament is necessary.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:52 PM ^
Problem is if one player/coach/ref/trainer is infected, playing a game for two hours that involves excessive sweating and rubbing up against each other is probably not a great situation for the other players, coaches, refs, trainers, announcers, etc.
I believe the tests take a few hours to come back, so I dunno how practical it would be to test EVERYONE on the floor before the game.
Exactly this. That and people are sick before they know it, which makes it that much easier to spread.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:49 PM ^
And right after this was announced the IHSAA commissioner went on tv and said the Indiana boys & girls tournament will continue, along with the gymnastics championship.
So don't worry, it's gross incompetence all the way down.
It's Indiana Jake.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:51 PM ^
Feels like the odds the NCAA tournament starts as planned are basically 0% now. Only question is if they cancel it outright and end the season, or do they try to delay somehow? My money is on the season being over.
March 12th, 2020 at 12:52 PM ^
Seems like just a matter of time before the NCAA tournament does the same.
Original take
Never underestimate the foolishness of people in authority - especially when that authority rests upon appeasing masses of people prone to groupthink.
Part of me was curious to watch a basketball game with no fans in the stands. But I'm sure it would have gotten annoying quickly to only hear the constant squeaking of their shoes on the court.
Funny you mention the squeaking of shoes. I remember watching games (especially college, which was all I watched on TV -- back in the 1970s or so) where virtually all sound (music, loudspeakers, etc.) ended when the ball was tipped. Typically the crowd noise at that point in the game was only a murmur. The only sound was the ball bouncing and the shoes squeaking. I sort of miss it. It was all about the game.
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