NCAA Tournament

The 2021 NCAA women's basketball tournament will take place in one region amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press.

The tournament will likely take place in San Antonio, which was previously scheduled to host the Final Four this season.

"San Antonio was the perfect region for us to explore because it already has an established and fully operational local organizing committee in place for the 2021 Women's Final Four," said Lynn Holzman, vice president of women's basketball at the NCAA.

Putting all 64 teams into one location allows for a "more controlled environment," as NCAA women's basketball committee chair Nina King explained.

Albany, New York; Austin, Texas; Cincinnati; and Spokane, Washington were all expected to host regional finals until the latest changes.

This decision comes after the NCAA announced in November the men's basketball tournament would be played within one geographic area. The men's Final Four was set for Indianapolis, and the NCAA remains in talks with the state of Indiana to host the entire tournament.

These changes help provide some stability amid the uncertainty with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both the men's and women's tournaments were canceled last March, while the start of the 2020-21 season has been affected by postponements and cancellations as well.

On the women's side, No. 2 Louisville was forced to pause activities Friday because of a positive test within the program, while No. 1 Stanford and No. 3 Connecticut each had games canceled.

The NCAA is in talks with the state of Indiana to host the entire 2021 NCAA men's basketball tournament in the Indianapolis metro area.

While no formal agreement is in place, the NCAA has decided to relocate the event from the original 13 preliminary-round sites. It's likely the tournament will take place in some form of a bubble because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mitch Barnhart, chair of the Division I Men's Basketball Committee and University of Kentucky athletics director, said in a statement:

“My committee colleagues and I did not come lightly to the difficult decision to relocate the preliminary rounds of the 2021 tournament, as we understand the disappointment 13 communities will feel to miss out on being part of March Madness next year. With the University of Kentucky slated to host first- and second-round games in March, this is something that directly impacts our school and community, so we certainly share in their regret. The committee and staff deeply appreciate the efforts of all the host institutions and conferences, and we look forward to bringing the tournament back to the impacted sites in future years."

Indianapolis is scheduled to host the men's Final Four from April 3 to April 5, 2021. The NCAA's offices are also located in Indianapolis.

Dan Gavitt of the NCAA also noted that there are "other cities" on a list if the organization is not able to come to an agreement with Indianapolis, per Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star.

The NCAA determined hosting a tournament at 13 sites across the country would not be feasible. By holding the event in one city, the NCAA may be able to pull it off with less risk of an outbreak.

NCAA President Mark Emmert added:

"The committee and staff have thoughtfully monitored the pandemic to develop potential contingency plans. The Board of Governors' and my top priorities are to protect the health and well-being of college athletes while also maintaining their opportunity to compete at the highest level. These principles have guided the decision-making process as we continue to assess how to have a fair and safe championship experience."

The NCAA canceled its men's basketball tournament for the first time in history in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Las Vegas will serve as one of the host cities for the regional round of the 2023 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

The NCAA announced all of the host venues for its postseason events running from 2022-26. Sin City hasn't hosted an NCAA championship event since the NCAA women's basketball tournament in 1991.

Dan Gavitt, the NCAA's senior vice president of basketball, issued a statement on the decision:

"While the NCAA seeks federal legislation to better regulate sports wagering, particularly to safeguard college sports competitions, we are excited to bring our national championships to Las Vegas. The city has hosted numerous championships sponsored by our member conferences, and the experience of the teams and fans has been overwhelmingly positive. We anticipate that being the case for our championships as well."

Because of Las Vegas' connection to the gambling industry, college and professional sports administrators generally shied away from formally affiliating with the city.

The NBA's Las Vegas Summer League was a notable outlier until the NHL awarded an expansion franchise to Vegas in June 2016. The Vegas Golden Knights celebrated their inaugural season in 2017-18. The WNBA's San Antonio Stars moved westward and renamed themselves the Las Vegas Aces starting in 2018. The Las Vegas Raiders were the third sports franchise after relocating from Oakland, California.

College sports have been trending in this direction as well.

The Pac-12 has used Vegas for its men's basketball tournament dating back to 2013, and the women's tournament moved there in 2019. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was planning to use Allegiant Stadium for its football championship starting this year.

The NCAA previously had a policy that forbade states that had legalized sports betting from hosting the organization's championship events. That policy fell by the wayside in May 2019.

NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt said Thursday the governing body of college athletics isn't planning to expand the field for the 2021 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Jeff Goodman of Stadium reported Wednesday longtime Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski led an effort among ACC coaches to create an "all-inclusive" edition of March Madness that would include all eligible Division I programs next season.

The 2020 NCAA tournament was canceled in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Krzyzewski told Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated why the ACC coaches got together to propose the plan.

"This is not a regular season," he said. "It is clearly an irregular season that will require something different. Our sport needs to be agile and creative."

Patrick Stevens of the Washington Post analyzed how the all-inclusive tournament could work with 32 host sites serving as "bubbles," similar to those being used by the NBA, NHL and other pro leagues, with two mini-tournaments in each bubble. The winning teams would slot in a traditional 64-team bracket.

In August, however, NCAA President Mark Emmert told the NCAA's official website (h/t ESPN's Jeff Borzello) that trying to plan even a 64-team event could be difficult enough given the circumstances.

"Starting with 64 teams is tough. Thirty-two, OK, maybe that's a manageable number. Sixteen, certainly manageable. But you've got to figure out those logistics," Emmert said. "There's doubtlessly ways to make that work."

The financial implications are significant for the NCAA.

Andrew Lisa of Yahoo Finance reported March Madness generates $933 million in ad revenue, and the event as a whole makes up approximately 75 percent of the NCAA's overall yearly revenue.

Krzyzewski noted the tournament's crucial role in helping fund college athletics on ESPN Radio's Keyshawn, JWill & Zubin last month: "We need to have the tournament. We can't have it where two years in a row you don't have the NCAA tournament."

The 2020-21 season would typically start in early November, but no final decision has been made after the major conferences differed in how they handled the college football season.

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski wants the 2021 NCAA men's basketball tournament to feature every Division I basketball team to account for what he called "an irregular season." 

Krzyzewski, along with other ACC coaches, is proposing an "all-inclusive" tournament that would include 346 teams.

"This is not a regular season," he said in a statement, according to Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde. "It is clearly an irregular season that will require something different. Our sport needs to be agile and creative."

Krzyzewski issued a statement through the Duke men's basketball Twitter account elaborating on the concept:

"In the ACC, we believe in the importance of celebrating our game. There is no better way to do that than involving every team in the most prestigious basketball tournament on the planet.

"In the thoughtful discussions among ACC coaches, the three primary factors we considered in formulating this idea were the health and safety of our players, the incentive that there will be games, all of which lead to the NCAA tournament this spring, that we need to be unified as a sport – all 357 Division I teams – competing in the game we love." 

Krzyzewski, who has been the head coach at Duke since 1980, has raised concerns regarding the NCAA's financial situation should the men's basketball tournament be canceled again. Ahead of the tournament's cancellation in March, Andrew Lisa of Yahoo Finance reported the men's tournament generates around 75 percent of the NCAA's yearly revenue, with $933 million coming through advertising.

"We need to have the tournament. We can't have it where two years in a row you don't have the NCAA tournament," Krzyzewski said in August on ESPN Radio.

According to Stadium's Jeff Goodman, all but 11 of the 357 Division I men's basketball teams would be eligible for the tournament: seven are reclassifying and three are academically ineligible. Oklahoma State is ineligible for the postseason due to recruiting violations.

Traditionally, the men's tournament includes 68 teams, with 32 conference champions and 36 teams earning an at-large bid.  

As the 2020 college football season continues to crumble because of the COVID-19 pandemic, focus has begun to shift on what may happen to college basketball. 

For now, the NCAA remains committed to March Madness returning in 2021. NCAA Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt said Wednesday fans should prepare for a "special" event after this year's cancellation:

"We are going to have a tournament. It's going to be special. We have our preferences about how we'd like to have it be, but if we have to adjust to the virus, which we don't control, we will adjust accordingly. The health and safety of the players and the coaches and all the people around the games—the referees, the fans—will be primary. But ultimately it will also include determining a national champion in the fairest and most equitable way that we can under these unusual circumstances. So, I think it's important to note: We're gonna have all sorts of contingencies and plans if it's necessitated. We're just not in the position to be able to talk about those in the middle of August, because that's not what our primary goal is."

Fall sports have already been canceled in the Big Ten, Pac-12 and several other conferences. The ACC, SEC and Big 12 are currently moving forward with a fall schedule, though that is subject to change.

All conferences have maintained they are committed to winter sports. However, it's hard to see any of the issues currently plaguing college football changing anytime soon. The Pac-12 already canceled all sports through the end of 2020, including basketball.

Schools and conferences are going to be potentially liable for putting players in harm's way during a pandemic. The NCAA has ruled conferences cannot require schools to have players sign waivers, which puts the onus on the conferences to make decisions.

The pandemic may be spreading at a slower rate by the scheduled beginning of the college basketball season, but having a vaccine by November is unlikely. 

A conference-only bubble, followed by a bubbled NCAA Tournament, may be the most realistic option. The NCAA and conferences will likely push off any potential alterations to the last minute for revenue purposes—and because a bubble poses its own complications for student-athletes—but they will hopefully be better prepared than fall sports. 

BR Video

One year ago, Auburn's national championship dreams were put on hold. UVA's Kyle Guy missed a game-winning three, but a foul was called on the shot with 0.6 seconds left. 

Watch the video above to relive this March Madness moment.

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It was a moment made for March. Sam Merrill, the Mountain West's reigning player of the year, had played 112 minutes of basketball in less than 72 hours. His Utah State Aggies' NCAA tournament hopes were hanging on winning this conference tournament title game against the San Diego State Aztecs. With the score tied, an exhausted Merrill dribbled the ball near midcourt as the clock ticked under 10 seconds.

In November, before the college basketball season began, Utah State had been picked to win the Mountain West. The Aggies were No. 17 in the preseason AP poll. San Diego State, meanwhile, didn't receive a single vote. But it had been the Aztecs' season. They started the year 26-0, climbed to No. 4 in the country and wrapped up the Mountain West regular-season title by the second week of February, with four games left to go. They entered the conference tournament with a 28-1 record and with their eyes on a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance.

Now, Merrill was trying to carve out any space between himself and KJ Feagin's smothering defense. He tried a couple of crossovers, but Feagin kept a hand in Merrill's pocket. With five seconds left, and Feagin still in his face, Merrill rose up from 25 feet and faded away. He stumbled backward and fell as he watched his shot sail through the net.

The Aztecs had a chance to answer, but star player Malachi Flynn's half-court heave rimmed out. As the buzzer sounded, Aggies bounced across the floor in ecstasy. San Diego State players, stunned, put their hands on their heads and sulked. After the game, in the locker room, Flynn tried to shoulder the blame, but teammates wouldn't let him. By the time their plane had touched down in San Diego that night, they'd resolved to use the loss as an extra incentive to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. It had stung, but it was a reminder that, moving forward, the season could end at any moment.

"At the time, when you lose that game, you're not thinking it's your last game," said Flynn, a redshirt junior. "We wanted to win, don't get me wrong. But win or lose, we were going to get a really good seed in the tournament, and we were going to have a chance to go far. But I guess the end always comes before you're ready."

Four days later, the sports world came to a complete stop. That Wednesday night, San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher was watching ESPN when he saw the news that Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz had tested positive for the coronavirus. He watched live as the NBA suspended its season. He and his players had already prepared themselves to play the tournament without fans. When he shared that news, he told them that he'd been part of a lot of great firsts in his career, and his next one would be to lead a team to the Final Four without fans for the first time. It was a journey that could have culminated in Atlanta this weekend. But that night, he was less sure of what to say. He pulled out his phone. His fingers hovered over the keyboard.

When compared to the other costs of the coronavirus, sports cancelations can seem trivial. Many have died. Many more have been infected or affected, physically, financially or emotionally. Dutcher knew his players would find perspective, but he also didn't want to dismiss their disappointment or pain. This San Diego State team had been special. It had been the last unbeaten program in college basketball for a month. It had set a school-record 26-game winning streak and had been the first team in the country to notch 30 wins. And it was about to have a chance to make a Final Four run without leaving the state of California.

The NCAA wouldn't make an official announcement until the next day, but Dutcher knew what Gobert's diagnosis meant. He texted his players to warn them: The season was likely over. He asked them to come by his office one by one the next day.

"I didn't spend any time feeling sorry for myself," Dutcher said. "I felt awful for the players. As a coach, you have the chance to go to another tournament. But so many of our players had never been to the tournament. For them to go 30-2 and not have a chance to go to the Dance was really sad."

By the time the players started streaming into his office early Thursday afternoon on the West Coast, the news was official. The Aztecs had accomplished so much more than anyone outside Southern California had expected before the season began, but they wouldn't have the chance to make history.

"It hurt," Flynn said. "It hurt a lot. We'd heard all year that we weren't playing the best competition, that we weren't as good as our record. It gave us an edge. The last loss gave us another edge. We were ready to prove how good we were. We would have proved it."

Two years ago, Malachi Flynn typed a paragraph on his Notes app, took a screenshot of it and hit send on the tweet announcing he would transfer. In high school, he'd received scarcely any Division I interest. But he'd developed into an elite scorer in two years at Washington State and wanted to continue to develop at a school where he could also win. Brian Dutcher was the first coach to come visit him in Pullman. As they watched film, Dutcher told Flynn how far he and the Aztecs could go together. They'd made the NCAA tournament seven of the previous 10 seasons, and they'd do that—and then some—with Flynn in the fold.

When Dutcher left Pullman and flew to Tacoma to meet with Flynn's family on his own, Flynn was convinced. After sitting out last season because of transfer rules, Flynn became one of four key fresh faces for the Aztecs this season. The team also picked up Feagin (Santa Clara) and Yanni Wetzell (Vanderbilt) as grad transfers, and added Trey Pulliam from the junior college ranks. Dutcher had assembled a Frankenstein's monster of a roster, and he hoped it'd be just as scary.

"All of them wanted to win more than anything," Dutcher said. "That's what made this team special. They sacrificed what they were. Trey had started almost every game in junior college. KJ had averaged 18 points a game. Malachi had taken like 700 shots in two seasons. They all sacrificed something individually so that together we could be something special."

Dutcher first started sensing that his team could be special after coming from behind to beat BYU on the road in the second game of the season. Then, when the Aztecs played in the Las Vegas Invitational during Feast Week in late November and beat Creighton and Iowa by double digits, he was convinced. So were his players. "We beat these really good teams in hostile environments before we'd even really formed our identity," said Wetzell, a forward. "Then we kept winning and we really found ourselves. We had a really good shot of going all the way with this team."

They entered 2020 with a perfect 13-0 record. They began conference play by going 15-0 and beating their opponents by an average of 14.5 points. Before the championship game against Utah State, the Aztecs only lost once, to top-100 team UNLV by three points. They were one of only four teams to finish in the top 15 in adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency on kenpom.com. And they also had one big advantage going into the Big Dance. After missing 19 games because of a blood clot in his lungs, 6'10" center Nathan Mensah was expected back in the lineup in time for the tournament.

"It might have been our year," Dutcher said. "I thought we had a chance. A really good chance. It's the NCAA tournament, so you can't predict what will happen. But our metrics were high. And no one adds a piece like Nathan—a rim protector with a 7'4" wingspan—during the tournament. People wouldn't have been able to bully us. We were going to be the bullies."

But his team's last moment together wasn't cutting down the nets after a championship or even a regional. The Aztecs didn't get the chance to qualify for the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. Instead, the last time they met together was on that Tuesday, March 10, after practice. That's when Dutcher told them they'd play the NCAA tournament without fans. By the time the everything was canceled two days later, the university had also axed all spring sports, barred meetings of more than 10 and moved classes online.

"We were a Final Four team," junior forward Matt Mitchell said. "At the very worst, we were going to the Elite Eight. We were strangers at the beginning of the year, but we got on the same page so quickly. We would have come together in the tournament and stuck like glue."

Instead, players had to say their goodbyes in passing as they slipped in and out of Dutcher's office or met on campus for meals. Even in the best years, your time to shine in college basketball is only ever a single moment. But you transfer schools and move hundreds of miles and practice thousands of hours and sweat through dozens of games for that one fleeting moment anyway. What happens when it's denied?

By the next week, when the NCAA tournament had been scheduled to tip off, San Diego State's team had separated. With practices canceled, many packed their bags and headed home to be with their families as they finished their courses online. Others remained behind.

Matt Mitchell is from nearby Riverside and can drive home whenever he's ready. For now, he's been running around campus with his almost two-year-old pit bull and lab mix, named Belle, and playing a board game based on an episode of the dystopian television show Black Mirror. Yanni Wetzell and his roommate (and teammate), Nolan Narain, have also stayed in town. Wetzell, who is from New Zealand, and Narain, a Canadian, were hoping to see their families for the first time in months at the NCAA tournament. Instead, they're thousands of miles away and wondering, like so many, if returning home would risk harming their loved ones.

In order to get the guys out of their house and to continue to feed them, every day a coach will meet the players who are still in town at a restaurant to buy them dinner. Last week, when Wetzell saw Dutcher at Chipotle, he asked his normally clean-shaven coach if the store had run out of razors. The players can't eat together because of California's lockdown, but seeing friendly faces—from the safe distance of six feet—has been a salve.

But the food does come with a catch. On the first day that the coaches announced the new meal plan, Mensah casually mentioned in a group text that food would be for returning players only. It was the beginning of a series of jokes that haven't relented, in part aimed at trying to convince Flynn to return for another season at San Diego State.

Flynn, the breakout star of the team, finished the season averaging 17.6 points and a nearly 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Once an unheralded recruit, Flynn is now a projected second-round draft pick. With the NBA season suspended, neither he nor any other draft hopefuls know what the next few months will hold. Dutcher has encouraged him to put his name in for the draft to get feedback from NBA teams, and his teammates support him, too. But they want him back to finish what this team started.

"It definitely gives you something to think about it," Flynn said. "You grow up wanting to play in the NCAA tournament. You see guys go from good players to household names. It happens every March. And you want that chance, too. It's why you go to a school like San Diego State. I think we were getting ready to go to a Final Four, and after that happens, anything can happen. It sucks 'cause everyone can say that. But what we did this season speaks for itself."

He has found some relief from the otherwise relentless wondering. He went home to Tacoma last week and located something he's been hunting since the season abruptly ended. Through a friend of a friend—he won't say who and he won't say where, for fear that the whole operation would shut down if he's discovered—he has gained access to an indoor basketball court. He goes every day and either has the place to himself or brings along his brother Isaiah. One day, he hopes, life will return to normal and he'll be able to make decisions about his future with a calm heart and a clear mind. For now, though, it feels good just to play again.

ESPN's Jay Bilas joins David Gardner on the How to Survive Without Sports podcast to discuss the NCAA's decision to cancel the tournament, how the NBA draft process could change and if the NCAA has already passed the tipping point of letting players profit from their names and likenesses.