NCAA Basketball: Impact of canceling March Madness for 2019-20 season

Impact on players

The biggest impact falls on players who had put in a season’s worth of work – a lifetime’s worth, really – and were hoping to compete for a national championship and play in a potentially life-changing event. For seniors, this was their last opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament. Some of them had already clinched automatic bids by winning conference tournaments earlier in the week and now won’t get to see the fruits of that victory.

It’s extremely difficult for a team like Hofstra, who won the CAA Tournament to advance to March Madness for the first time since 2001 after narrowly missing out in 2019 and 2016. Fifth-year senior Desure Buie, who played on both of those teams, talked about how much making the NCAA Tournament meant to him after winning the CAA title.

"“Growing up, that is always what I wanted to do, sitting at the TV and watching those games. You dream of this as a kid. Kemba Walker was my role model, so I used to run home to see him and I just wanted to be a part of something special. I wouldn’t trade these guys for the world.”"

That dream has now been painfully ripped away from him for reasons completely out of his control.

Then there’s Gonzaga guard Ryan Woolridge, who was a grad transfer from North Texas and said one of the reasons made the decision because he wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament.

There are several other players who opted to bypass the NBA Draft in order to return to college with the dream of leading their school to a national championship, Kansas point guard Devon Dotson and Duke point guard Tre Jones chief among them. That dream has been put on hold yet again due to something they had nothing to do with.

This gives the NCAA another decision to make – do you move forward as-is and simply tell everyone they’re out of luck, or do you somehow try to give everyone their chance back?

A large number of coaches are calling for the latter, with Oklahoma State head coach Mike Boynton offering up this idea to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman:

This idea, or similar ones supporting an extra year of eligibility for seniors, has quickly gained traction in college basketball circles from coaches, players, and media members alike, but it remains to be seen if anything like that can or will be done.