NCAA Basketball: 15 underrated storylines to root for in 2020-21 season

Merrimack Warriors –  NCAA postseason moratorium

Usually, when a team is ineligible for postseason play it is because of some sort of NCAA rule violation most likely associated with recruiting. Teams, under those circumstances, do not deserve any additional fan support, but that is not the case for the Merrimack Warriors.

The 2019-20 season was Merrimack’s first in Division I and part of the reclassifying process is a four-year moratorium on attending an NCAA sanctioned post-season events. Normally this is just a formality and does not affect anything as DII schools are happy to be in the middle of the pack when they move up to play DI competition. Such was not the reality with the Warriors.

Coach Joe Gallo and the senior guard led Warriors went 14-4 and won the NEC Regular Season Championship, a feat that should have placed them in the No.1 seed for the NEC tournament. This would not be, despite the NCAA moratorium not including conference tournaments, the Warriors were excluded from the NEC tournament as well, to as explained in a CBS article on Feb. 27, 2020:

"The NEC made the call on not allowing Merrimack to participate in the NEC playoffs, the reason being that the NEC does not want to have a situation wherein Merrimack wins the NEC bracket only to have the loser of the title game take the automatic bid."

One can understand the NEC’s position, and feel for the three seniors who were playing their last season as well as the six recruits from 2019 class who signed with Merrimack knowing they would be playing without the prospect of ever playing in the postseason. Coach Gallo was able to recruit three more in 2020.  That equals nine players, who chose for themselves to play three or four years, simply to play basketball, and that is something every fan should support.