The NCAA has officially announced that they will be cancelling the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The news comes on the heels of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. In just the last 24 hours, numerous major sports leagues postponed play, including the NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS. Earlier today, the power five conferences in DI Men's Basketball all cancelled their tournaments, and the domino effect simply carried over to all NCAA Tournaments.
In a press release on NCAA.com and a twitter post from the official NCAA account, the news was revealed to the public. While not specifically mentioning the DIII Tournament, it appeared to be included. Any doubts were removed when D3hoops.com announced that the mass cancellation impacted the in-progress men's and women's tournaments as well.
"We're just sad," Coach Elliot Steinmetz told D3hoops. "We wanted to see what this group could accomplish. We were feeling very good about our chances to keep playing and felt like we were hitting our peak. But we don’t control this world and there are bigger things than basketball."
With that, the historic YU season comes to a sudden end. The Macs finish with the best record in Division III, at 29-1, as well as the longest winning streak of any D3 team this season (29 games).
One of the saddest days of my life. Thanks everyone for coming along with us on the journey. We couldn't have done it without you.