Here’s a selection of photos from first round games at Mackey Arena at Purdue, Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall at Indiana University, Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler, Indiana Farmers Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Bankers Life Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium.
The NCAA announced the cancellation—officially declaring a “no contest”—about three hours before Virginia Commonwealth University was scheduled to tip off against Oregon in the West Region.
Capacity was limited to no more than 25% and bands and cheerleaders were noticeably absent. Still, most of the elements that make the NCAA Tournament America’s most beloved sporting event were on display Friday in the games played around central Indiana.
Purdue was the third Big Ten team out of the nation-leading nine it placed in the tournament to exit before the weekend.
NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt vowed to do better during a zoom call Friday morning, a day after photos showed the difference between the weight rooms at the two tournaments.
The changes the COVID-19 virus has forced upon the sports world involve not only the way games have been played and attended but also how they’ve been covered by the media.
“Hoosiers” made Hinkle Fieldhouse famous by Hollywood standards, but in the college basketball world, the home court for Butler University basketball was already a star.
Strict limits on crowd sizes in Mackey Arena at Purdue University for the NCAA tourney will dampen the tourism impact, but the games are still the biggest events to hit the West Lafayette area since the pandemic started.
Texas Southern beat Mount St. Mary’s 60-52 in the NCAA opener, while Drake topped Wichita State for its first NCAA win in 50 years. Also, Norfolk State survived Appalachian State 54-53.
They’re not underdogs. They’re hardly unknown. What they are is a group of new teams with well-recognized names in the NCAA Tournament, and they’re hoping to keep making life hard on some of the programs that have long had a stranglehold on March.
NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt responded to athletes’ renewed demands for compensation Thursday by saying he supports and encourages their right to free speech within the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament’s rules.
This is life at a basketball tournament being played in a pandemic. The unspoken message: If players came to Indianapolis hoping for fun and games, they are not in the right place—at least not until tip-off.
Tony Hinkle left behind a chance to play for the 1921 and 1922 World Series baseball champions, a team that won four consecutive pennants. All he did at Butler instead was change the sport of basketball—forever.
Waiting in Indianapolis for the tournament to start, some college basketball stars on Wednesday tweeted #NotNCAAProperty as a reference to the ongoing fight to earn money for things like sponsorship deals, online endorsement and personal appearances.
All those delays for COVID-19 cases that 27 of the 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament went through during the season could end up benefitting them now that they’ve arrived in Indianapolis.
The 68-team men’s tournament, which starts Thursday, is usually staged in 14 cities across the country. Here’s how Indianapolis plans to pull off the whole thing all by itself.
Hinkle, Wooden, Knight and Keady form the Mount Rushmore of basketball innovation in Indiana, where successful coaches have spent more than a century testing novel concepts, breaking barriers and polishing philosophies before introducing them to America.
The NCAA said only one of the officials tested positive for the virus, but the other five were “identified as exposure risks due to prolonged close contact.”
Despite the current gridlock, NCAA President Mark Emmert said he is still hopeful the NCAA will have uniform national name, image and likeness rules in place before the start of next football season.
Six of the arenas that helped create Indiana’s basketball legacy will go on full display when the NCAA Tournament tips off later this week.
