“We'll wait until next year": Illini Don't Get NCAA Tournament Recognition On Selection Sunday
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois will not have its name seen or heard today during a NCAA tournament selection show for the first time in seven years.
Due to the concerns over the COVID-19 novel coronavirus epidemic, the NCAA released a statement Thursday afternoon announcing an unprecedented decision of canceling the 2020 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
With the cancelation of the 2020 NCAA tournament due to concerns over COVID-19 epidemic, Illinois will not see or hear its name called on the CBS selection show today.
CBS Sports
Once he started learning Thursday morning what was happening in conference tournaments across America, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood knew immediately his team wasn’t going to be recognized on the largest stage of March Madness. The cancellation of the 2020 NCAA tournament guaranteed Illinois would not be on a selection show Sunday or be one of 64 teams part of first round action either the following Thursday or Friday.
Underwood said Friday he, like several other college coaches were initially holding out hope for the NCAA tournament to be postponed similarly to professional leagues.
"I think we were all trying to avoid finality, and cancel is final, yet as Josh just mentioned, I think when you get so close to the end of the school year, you get so many other factors involved," Underwood said. "It was way above just a basketball tournament. You know, you've got travel restrictions, you've got so many other things that go on. I think you've got logistical plans. I would have loved to have seen it played, but I also am smart enough to understand that there were complications well beyond the realm of what is normal in terms of just postponing something and rescheduling it. There was a tremendous amount of complications to that. You know, you're disappointed that it is final, it's over, we're not going to play it, but you fully understand the path with which it had to be that way."
NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt told CBS Sports Friday that the organization’s governing body has not ruled out the idea of doing a 68-team bracket for the purposes of an official recognition for postseason teams of the 2019-20 Division I men’s basketball season.
However, Gavitt confirmed to Sports Illustrated Sunday that "there will be no bracket release."
The unprecedented announcement by NCAA president Mark Emmert to cancel the 2020 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments meant the Illini’s men’s basketball season has ended without participation in any postseason play.
"We're hearing today there's interest from coaches and athletic directors from that," Gavitt said to CBS. "I wouldn't say we've shut down the idea completely, but there is, practically speaking, it's a bit challenging at this moment. ... There's pluses and minuses to any decision. If you put the field together, you could have teams, depending on that conference's policy, would not be the most obvious choice as the [automatic qualifier]. It's something we're going to continue to look at.”
Underwood said he understood the problems to CBS and the NCAA trying to conduct a selection show for a tournament that wouldn't exist and the Illini coach confirmed he won’t be organizing a selection gathering at State Farm Center with his team as to comply with the social distancing recommendation of local, state and national officials.
“Well, there's not going to be a selection show,” Underwood said. “You know, it's one of the great, great, great emotions that take place is hearing your name called, and that sense of accomplishment that you have.”
This lack of recognition of the Illinois men’s basketball program today doesn’t change the head coach’s mind that the 2019-20 Illini team should be remembered as accomplishing several landmarks to reverse the two disappointing losing seasons of the Underwood era.
“I don't think there was any doubt (that) we weren't a bubble team. We were in (in the NCAA tournament),” Underwood said. “I think that all the talk for us was about can we move up a line, can we move up two lines, what happens, that's what the Big Ten tournament, how it was going to impact us. I'm disappointed for our guys that they don't get to hear their name. That's pretty special. It's one of the great memories. But I also understand the ramifications of automatic qualifiers and who do you pick and how difficult that could be."
Illinois head coach Brad Underwood upset on a call against Maryland during the second half of a 2019 game at Madison Square Garden.
Dennis Schneidler/USA TODAY Sports
Underwood called the conversation he had with his men’s basketball team on Thursday as “one of the most difficult conversations I’ve had with a team in my 33 years of coaching.”
"I thought on the drive home, and a lot of us coaches were talking around the country, and we kind of had an idea of what it was, and again, I think you just kind of pause for a moment, and you realize the abruptness of it, but you realize the raw emotion that's going to be there and how bad you feel, yet in Illini basketball, there was a lot to be proud of, and I wanted to make sure that they understood what they had done. They brought us back to national prominence. They brought us back to the NCAA Tournament. They achieved great things. We had a double bye. We were in competition the last week for the conference championship, the conference title. We were in a position to win a national championship. To be quite honest, I think in a year there was no clear-cut favorite. We had a chance.I wanted them to experience that. The Illini Nation is back better than ever, and the sellouts, the crowds, and I want them to remember those things, and not just the sadness and the emptiness that comes from not playing, but the positives of what happened. You know, that was a -- that's why it was a tough meeting, because you did mix so many emotions. But I'll be forever grateful, man. That group is always going to live as one of the teams that accomplished so much and deserves so much credit. I wanted them to know that."
Underwood and the Illini program now have no option but to wait 365 days until the school's NCAA tournament drought ends.
“We'll wait until next year,” Underwood said.