Cal Athletics: Feeling Sad For So Many Who Lose as Sports Come to a Screeching Halt

The COVID-19 virus claims victims beyond those who become infected

Suddenly, our world is turned upside down.

The challenges we face on the sports front pale in comparison to health and financial issues, to school closures . . . to a scarcity of toilet paper.

The impact of the COVID-19 virus pandemic is hitting everyone, and hitting hard.

In the realm we deal with here — collegiate sports — the effect still is profound. It’s not life and death, but athletics are important in so many ways to people who play and compete and coach and cheer.

The cancellation on Thursday of the NCAA basketball tournaments followed the loss of conference tournaments and went hand-in-hand with the announcement that all remaining winter and spring NCAA events will be put on the shelf permanently.

This is a new reality that’s difficult to wrap our heads around. For many of us, sports are an everyday part of our lives. We consume it in so many different ways — in person at games, on TV, radio sports talk shows, through the internet and, once upon a time, via the newspaper. Some of us write about it.

And for now, it’s gone, a victim of a necessary new addition to the vernacular: social distancing.

Personally, the hardest sports news to accept Thursday was the cancellation of March Madness. I have covered the NCAA tournament for more than three decades, and the atmosphere and magnitude of the games elevates them.

But the announcement mostly left me feeling sad for so many others who are affected. I found myself thinking about:

— Cal seniors Paris Austin and Kareem South, who endured a challenging season with a new coach and a new system before leading the Bears to a first-round victory over Stanford at the Pac-12 tournament, only to have possibly their final career game yanked from them hours before getting a shot at No. 2 seed UCLA in the quarterfinals

— East Bay native and Oregon senior All-American Sabrina Ionescu — perhaps the best-known male or female college player in the country — who has lost her final shot at completing “unfinished business” by leading the Ducks to an NCAA title

*** National columnist Pat Forde weighs in below on his own heartbreak for seniors deprived of their final chance to compete in college:

— Jordan Ford, the nation’s 12th-leading scorer, who averaged 29 points in three West Coast Conference tournament games and was poised to hear on Sunday afternoon who and where his Saint Mary’s College team would play in the NCAA tournament

— The Stanford men’s basketball team — yes, Stanford — which no longer has to worry and wonder about whether its balancing act on the NCAA bubble would result in a tournament bid

— Flamboyant Dayton star Obi Toppin, who has flown under the radar with casual fans but would have exploded in front of the country on the big stage after leading the Flyers to a 29-2 regular-season record

— Gonzaga and San Diego State, perhaps the two best men’s teams on the West Coast, now denied the chance to chase their Final Four dreams

— The No. 15 seed that every so often upends a No. 2 in the NCAA tournament and creates chaos in the bracket. It’s happened eight times, including three times since 2012. Most memorable: 1993, when a little-known freshman guard from Canada named Steve Nash helped Santa Clara stun Arizona.

— The non-basketball fan who enters his or her NCAA office pool just because everyone else is doing it, then wins whole thing. At my office many years ago, a co-worker’s dog once won the pool. That was the last time I entered

— Arena workers including concessionaires, ushers, parking lot attendants and other contract workers, who will lose paydays with the cancellation of NCAA tournament games they were scheduled to work

— Beyond hoops, I feel badly for quarterback Chase Garbers and his Cal offensive teammates, who likely will lose valuable practice time this spring meshing with new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave. Spring ball is suspended at least until March 30

— Cal junior hammer thrower Camryn Rogers, the reigning NCAA champion and 2019 Canadian leader, who misses out on the chance to defend her collegiate title and now must wonder whether the Tokyo Olympics might evaporate

— Cal sophomore catcher Makena Smith, who is hitting an impressive .481 though 24 games and will never know if she could have won the Pac-12 softball batting title

— All spring sport seniors, who face the likelihood of their careers ending prematurely (Spring sport athletes reportedly will be granted an extra year of eligibility)

— And every one of us who waits all year for Selection Sunday, the unpredictability of first-round games on Thursday and Friday, the drama of the Elite Eight and championship Monday

So we wait ’til next year. In the meantime, be safe.