By Jamie Drachman IV
March 12th, 2020. That was the day when the collegiate and professional sports’ worlds shut down. The night before, Rudy Gobert, a Center on the Utah Jazz, tested positive for Covid-19 and the NBA subsequently suspended play from that night onwards. The following day, everything unraveled. Some NCAA conferences began their tournaments without fans, playing to empty arenas, but were shut down at the halftime of the first games. In many conferences, with no tournament played, no champion could be crowned, despite everything that had happened already in the season. Then on March 12, the NCAA dropped the hammer and cancelled all winter championships and spring seasons, leaving us fans with one thought: What a ride that would have been.
This NCAA season was unique in that it possessed many different number one ranked teams. Many of the top teams this season were upset at some point, and therefore made the looming NCAA tournament even more unpredictable than usual. For example, the number one ranked Kentucky Wildcats were upset by unranked Evansville in their home, Rupp Arena. Although at the time this upset seemed like a rare occurrence, it was the first of many upsets that happened throughout the season. Many people, including myself, speculated that this NCAA tournament would be one of the most exciting in recent history because there was not a definitive favorite to win.
Even though the remainder of the season was cancelled, players still received rewards for their efforts. Obi Toppin, a forward on the Dayton Flyers, won the Naismith Award for best player in college basketball. Toppin was one of the most important parts of Dayton’s season, and he led them to number three in the country, one of their best finishes ever. San Diego State also had a historic season. The Aztecs finished the year with 30 wins and 2 losses after going undefeated for nearly 3 months. The Aztecs finished number six in the country in the last rankings, and the team clearly showed growth from years past.
Although the Men’s basketball season was extraordinary, the Women’s season was unique as well. Many, many records were shattered by Sabrina Ionescu of the Oregon Ducks. Ionescu was poised to lead her team to a National Championship this year after winning the Pac-12, but their season was left with unfinished business. Ionescu was recently drafted number one overall in the WNBA draft to the New York Liberty, and looks to be one of the best professional players in the next season.
In the end, the 2019-2020 NCAA college basketball season presented many exciting and historical moments on both the Men’s and Women’s sides, though it was sadly left unfinished.
