BREAKING: Big Ten Tournament Canceled Over COVID-19 Epidemic
Concerns over the COVID-19 novel coronavirus epidemic have forced the cancelation of the 2020 Big Ten men’s basketball tournament.
The tournament was set to resume this morning without fans in attendance at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis with the second round game between eight-seed Michigan and No. 9 seed Rutgers. However, less than an hour before, both the Michigan and Rutgers players and coaching staffs were told during pre-game warmups to go back to the locker room. Minutes after the playing floor was cleared, the Big Ten Conference released a statement at 10:44 a.m. announcing the cancelation of the tournament.
UPDATE: Illinois athletics officials confirmed to Illini Now/Sports Illustrated the Illini basketball team practiced at an off site location this morning in Indianapolis, Ind., and the plan is for them to head back to the team hotel and prepare to bus back to Champaign Thursday afternoon.
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo expressed his concerns Thursday morning over the COVID-19 epidemic on The Dan Patrick Show saying he would be in favor or postponing or canceling games.
“If it would have been a couple days ago, I would’ve said let’s play the games and now I’m looking at it and saying it sure is starting to lean towards it may be best if things were postponed or canceled,” Izzo said on the syndicated sports radio show.
TNT basketball analyst Charles Barkley stated Thursday morning “I think the NCAA tournament should be shut down”.
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said on the network’s morning show ‘Get Up’ that he has serious concerns about college basketball games being held even without fans in attendance.
“As much as I dislike having to say this, I can’t see putting players out on the floor in the current climate,” Bilas said. “Given the NBA’s decision and FIBA, the international governing body of basketball, their decision to suspend play, I think it is very difficult. When the pros say they’re not playing because of a public health issue, a pandemic, it strikes me as a very bad look and hard to justify that we’re going to trot out amateurs to play for money. Look, I don’t think that’s the reasoning behind this but ultimately I think it is in the best interest of the players, the enterprise and of public health to suspend play right now. Reasonable minds can differ but I haven’t heard an appropriate justification for playing with seemingly everyone is saying they’re not playing.”
This announcement by the Big Ten follows the news of the National Basketball Association announcing Wednesday evening it is suspending play of its current season after suspending its season until further notice after Utah Jazz All-Star forward Rudy Gobert reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 novel coronavirus. ESPN analyst Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday morning that, according to league sources, Utah Jazz star player Donovan Mitchell has also tested positive for the coronavirus.
The University of Illinois athletics department released a statement saying no decision has been reached on the attendance policy for spring on-campus sporting events due to concerns of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus epidemic.
The statement was released by Illinois associate athletics director for media relations Kent Brown on behalf of the athletics department. With Michigan and Ohio State already announcing the postponement/cancelation of its spring practices and spring football game while also restricting the incoming and outgoing recruiting efforts by its football staff, Illini Now/Sports Illustrated asked Brown Wednesday if Illinois would follow suit.
"We have put together a few committees to help guide us in those decisions," Brown's response statement to Illini Now/SI reads. "Things are changing extremely fast. No final decisions have been made at this point. All that could change, quickly, however."