Publishers’ Note: Zac and I are like many of you, unsure of what is going to happen and what is going around the country and world. Right now, it looks like UConn sports and all sports in general are going away for the next several weeks. When we have some news on UConn sports, we will write a newsletter. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we can start writing some positive news once again. Best wishes to you all. — John Silver
We Are Going To Miss Sports — Especially UConn Sports
The Story: This is the simplest and saddest one-line story we have ever written. The AAC and NCAA tournaments have been canceled and it appears as though the college sports seasons are over. The country is in a state of emergency and we are now are going to live without sports for at least the next month, and maybe longer.
WHAT HAPPENED? The men’s basketball team was scheduled to play in the first round of the AAC tournament yesterday, but it soon become untenable to hold a basketball game in an empty arena with the rest of the country on lockdown. Looking back at what happened over the last several days, the arguments to play the games with no fans made little sense. Sports have an unique hold on the population. We were willing to give up almost everything for the pandemic, but would have been happy cooped up watching March Madness.
Reality burst that bubble. The NBA was the first league to pause its season, and once a professional sports league suspended its season, the cold harsh reality set in. College students aren’t paid athletes, and if the professionals aren’t playing, why would organizations send kids out across the country to play games? Dan Hurley was seeing the same thing and even considered leaving the tournament with his team before the cancellation. It is a painful but really easy decision to shut things down.
WHAT IT MEANS: It means no men’s hockey playoffs, no women’s basketball run or some March magic for the men’s basketball team. Crystal Dangerfield‘s career is over, as is Christian Vital‘s and maybe Alterique Gilbert‘s. We aren’t going to see the men’s hockey team make a run in the Hockey East tournament. The softball team’s ridiculously hot start? Gone. Baseball’s season opener at the new stadium? It’s over. Wow. Thursday was a sad day.
WHAT DID GENO SAY? Leave it to Geno Auriemma to put things into perspective. Here’s his soliloquy as aired on “SportsCenter” yesterday:
“I feel bad for the seniors on the team more than anything. That’s why you play all year long — you know, you play to get an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament. I feel bad for teams who have qualified for the very first time whose kids, you know, [have a] dream come true [with their] life-long aspirations to play in the NCAA Tournament. They’re going to be denied an opportunity.
“So, when you put that into perspective with [the tournament being played] — OK, the upside is they will get a chance to play for a championship. The downside is a potential loss of life, and, even without loss of life, [there’s] a potential of spreading it to someone who spreads it to someone and everything that we’re afraid of actually does come true. The fans, obviously, who look forward to this every year; a coach who’s never taken their team to the tournament before and now gets an opportunity and it’s taken away from them — there’s a lot of reasons why they should play, obviously.
“My feeling, the minute I read that one of the [NBA] players tested positive, I thought that was the beginning of the end, because how can we justify putting our players out there and having something happen to them? I don’t know that we want to be responsible for that because right now, every parent of every child wants them to play in the NCAA Tournament unless, all of a sudden, it’s their son or their daughter that somehow contracts this and then it’s somebody’s fault in the world that we live in. So, there’s so many, so many layers to this, and in the end, I truly believe they’re doing the right thing.”
OUR TAKE: We can’t fathom how this is going to feel. We don’t want to think about it. Sports isn’t the most important thing in life and there are real life-and-death issues at stake right now, and there’s an even bigger effect on the global economy. But sports are a big part of our lives and if you are reading this, UConn sports are an important part of your life. We can’t fathom a world without sports and the communal gathering of like-minded people. Sports are fun precisely because you can share the experience with another human being. There is nothing quite so exhilarating as winning games and nothing more devastating as losing a big game.
We cherish the wins and we cherish the losses. What we will miss most is the journey to get there and the rollercoaster that is the very nature of sports. And, losing that makes us sad.
We’ll see you again, hopefully, sooner rather than later.
