Nothing about Thursday, March 12, was normal. Not the drive into the city on highways far, far less congested than on a normal New York City weekday. Not the parking lot on 34th Street, which was eerily empty with bored attendants eagerly happy to park one of the few cars that came their way.
Not the streets surrounding Madison Square Garden, where fans attending the four-game quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Tournament usually lead to gridlock on the sidewalks and surrounding bars and restaurants.
And not inside the World’s Most Famous Arena, where the usual crowd of 19,000-plus fans expected for the Garden’s marquee college basketball event was reduced to more of an intimate gathering due to the BIG EAST’s restricted attendance policy due to the coronavirus.
But then at 1:04 p.m., with both Creighton and St. John’s in their locker rooms after a first half that saw the Johnnies build a 38-35 lead, came the most surreal moment of the day when the Garden’s public address announcer informed the couple of hundred fans in attendance that the BIG EAST Tournament was now cancelled.
BIG EAST Commissioner Val Ackerman met with the media after the announcement and explained the conference’s decision to shutter the tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This has been the most extraordinary stretch of days I’ve ever had or seen in my 30-plus years of working in the sports business,” Ackerman said. “The developments seem to be changing by the hour.”
The cancellation of the tournament came less than a day after the BIG EAST adopted a policy of limiting fans to 200 per school for Thursday’s quarterfinal round. That decision, Ackerman said, was just as difficult as the cancellation.
“It’s not easy to turn on a dime and tell all 20,000 people or 19,000 people they can’t come to the BIG EAST Tournament,” Ackerman said. “But we had to do it.”
The decision to cancel the BIG EAST Tournament, after almost every other major conference tournament in the country had pulled the plug on their tourneys, came after a call with presidents and athletic directors of the member schools along with contact with New York City authorities.
And while the decision to halt the tournament, a March fixture in the city for the past 38 years, was made during the first half of the Creighton-St. John’s game, pulling the teams off the court during game action was never on the table.
“For us to have Garden security march out onto the floor and pull them into the locker room didn’t make sense to us,” Ackerman said. “But that said, it didn’t make sense to pull them after halftime and send them back out there. That’s the decision we made and we stand by the decision.”
While it was no easy decision to cancel the BIG EAST Tournament, the conference’s crown jewel, the almost hourly developments surrounding the coronavirus made the decision a no-brainer for Ackerman.
“It breaks my heart,” she said. “But we respect the decision of the authorities. We’re very mindful about what’s happening nationally. We do not want to be imprudent as it relates to the safety of our participants and our fans. And it’s terrifying, frankly, what’s evolving here. And I don’t think any of us know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
Neither players nor coaches from St. John’s or Creighton were available for comment at the Garden after the decision was made. But across the street on Seventh Avenue, at the Stewart Hotel, Creighton coach Greg McDermott held court with a small group of media to talk about how he and his team found out, his thoughts on the decision and what could be next for his Bluejays and the rest of the college basketball world.
“I was a little surprised we started the game,” McDermott said. “But the conference office came back and communicated with us at halftime and, I mean, we’re living in unprecedented times so you’re going to have some crazy things happen. And today was one of them.”
McDermott said it was Stu Jackson, the BIG EAST Senior Associate Commissioner for Men’s Basketball, who delivered the news to McDermott and the Bluejays. But the cancellation didn’t come as a complete shock to McDermott.
“Obviously what happened in the NBA last night fast-tracked everything and set all this into motion,” McDermott said, referring to the league’s decision to suspend operations. “I understand it, the safety of our fans and our student-athletes has to become paramount and I’m sure that’s why this decision was made.”
McDermott tried to inject a little levity into a serious situation when he was asked how his team took the news.
“The guys were disappointed,” McDermott said before adding, “the guys who were 3-for-3 were more disappointed than the guys who went 2-for-9. But we’re living in a crazy time right now and who knows where this is going from here.”
The Bluejays, like their BIG EAST brethren Seton Hall, Villanova, Providence, Butler and Marquette, may have all very well played their final games this season and McDermott was asked if he and the Bluejays have talked about that possibility.
“I haven’t really thought about that because, again, I don’t have access to information as to what the NCAA is thinking,” McDermott said. “If they’re thinking of a cancellation or a postponement. I hope it’s not a cancellation. I hope we find a place on the calendar to play it. I just think it’s a great event. There are a lot of teams that have earned the opportunity to do that and when the time comes and it’s safe to play it, I hope we’ll figure out a way to do it.”