Coronavirus cancels high school state tournaments, denies champions
Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns surprised Hopkins star guard Paige Bueckers with the Gatorade National Player of the Year Award on Monday morning.
MINNEAPOLIS - High school basketball players were supposed to be playing for championships and cutting down nets this past weekend, but a worldwide health crisis had other ideas.
The dominoes started to fall last Wednesday night, when the NBA suspended its season and all operations after Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid-19. Earlier in the week, the NBA and NCAA had determined games would go on, but without fans to limit the spread of the virus.
Gobert, and eventually teammate Donovan Mitchell testing positive, changed everything. College basketball came to a halt as conference tournaments got canceled, and there was no Selection Sunday. The NCAA canceled all of its remaining winter championships, and canceled the spring season.
Locally, while other major sports were shutting down, the Girls State Basketball Tournament and boys basketball section playoffs went on with fans last Thursday night. Hopkins beat Stillwater, and Farmington got past St. Michael-Albertville to set up the Class 4A girls state championship game.
The Royals were undefeated, on a 62-game win streak and featured the best player in the country in Paige Bueckers. Then Friday happened. The Minnesota State High School League modified its basketball tournaments to include only the teams, essential game day staff and credentialed media. The games would go on, but without fans.
Hours before Friday’s semifinals were to begin, the MSHSL changed course and canceled all winter tournaments. The girls state tournament, and boys section playoffs, were canceled. Bueckers, named the Gatorade Player of the Year last Monday, and Hopkins never got the chance to win their third state championship in four years.
In boys basketball, No. 1-ranked and 28-0 Eden Prairie was set to host No. 3-ranked Shakopee Friday night. Then, the game got canceled. It didn’t stop the team from celebrating their season. The Eagles gathered over the weekend, cut down nets in their gym and celebrated their version of a state championship.
We’ll never know if the likes of Bueckers, Jalen Suggs, Drake Dobbs and his Eden Prairie teammates got to end their seasons as state champions.
It was the same situation for the State Adapted Floor Hockey Tournament last weekend, which also got canceled. A tough reality for many kids who play sports as an escape, a chance to be just like everybody else.
Now the high school spring sports season is in doubt, with the Centers for Disease Control recommending not having gatherings of at least 50 people for eight weeks. That means sports won’t be getting together, at the earliest, until the middle of May.
Also on the NCAA level, a capacity crowd was originally planned as No. 2-ranked St. John's was going to host No. 4-ranked St. Thomas in the Division III men's basketball Sweet 16 at Sexton Arena. The two teams hadn't played each other in the NCAA Tournament since current St. Thomas coach, John Tauer, was a star for the Tommies in 1993. In the span of about 36 hours, the game went from being played in front of no fans to the NCAA canceling it altogether. Tauer had to deliver the news to his players Thursday, just before they had planned to practice, that the season was over.
Life will resume, there will be a normal again. But you can't help but feel for high school and college seniors who had their seasons and careers end without finality, one way or another. It's the end of an era, and the way it happened was something nobody saw coming just a few weeks ago.