In a span of less than 24 hours, the John Brown men's basketball team went from having the excitement of preparing to play in the national tournament next week to having its season end all together.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced Thursday it was canceling all winter championships, including the 2020 NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championships, which was scheduled to begin in Kansas City, Mo., this week, out of concern for the covid-19 virus.
"The health and safety of our student-athletes, as well as all involved in our championship events, is the NAIA's highest priority," the NAIA said in a statement on its website. "We will continue to monitor covid-19 developments and NAIA leadership will work closely with our member institutions to determine the best path forward for future NAIA events, including all spring 2020 championships."
It would have been JBU's ninth trip overall to the national tournament.
"Obviously, we're extremely disappointed that this has to happen," head coach Jason Beschta said. "We're in the middle of such a special and historic year for JBU men's basketball, and this group has accomplished some incredible things. Like the other 31 teams, we were looking forward to making a deep run in the tournament, but this won't take away what we did accomplish this season. I'm saddened for our seniors to have it end this way, but very thankful for the contributions they made this season and for the whole program's efforts in making 2019-20 such an incredible year."
With the cancellation of the national tournament, the Golden Eagles' season comes to a close with a 28-5 mark, tying a program-best for wins in a single season. The 2012-13 team also won 28 games and advanced to the final 16 round of the national tournament.
The 2019-20 Golden Eagles finished second in the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season and advanced to the tournament championship game, where it lost to Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas).
On Wednesday, the NAIA had just announced its 32-team field, including John Brown's men, during a selection show.
The ninth-ranked Golden Eagles had been tabbed as a No. 3 seed in the Naismith bracket of the tournament and were going to face No. 6 seed Harris-Stowe (Mo.), which won the American Midwest Conference Tournament.
The Golden Eagles gathered together on Wednesday inside the Bynum Theatre in the Walton Lifetime Health Complex to watch their selection to the national tournament.
The team celebrated with a handful of fans as its placement was announced.
"It means a lot," said junior point guard Rokas Grabliauskas. "It means that our hard work has paid off. We've been working for this since August. So it definitely means a lot to us."
Shortly after announcing the tournament field, the NAIA released that it would restrict access to the national tournament to tournament staff and limited family members, but that the tournament would go on.
That changed late Thursday morning after several NCAA conferences announced the cancellation of their conference tournaments altogether.
Sports on 03/15/2020