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John Beilein still wants to see a Selection Sunday for the canceled NCAA Tournament

Kevin Cunningham

By Kevin Cunningham

Published:

Coronavirus has made its way through the sports world and affected nearly every sport imaginable in some shape or form to this point.

On Thursday, the NCAA announced that the entire NCAA Tournament for men’s basketball was not being postponed — but canceled completely.

RELATED: NCAA announces cancellation of 2020 tournament

With that, the men’s basketball season came to a close. Some conference tournaments were completed. Some were not, such as the Big Ten. We’ll never know which team would have won the 2020 Big Ten Tournament.

And, we’ll also never know which team would have won the NCAA Tournament. One of the great moments in the sport of college basketball that takes place every season is Selection Sunday. Whether you’re a team that know you’re going dancing, on the bubble or even if you know you’ll be missing out — Selection Sunday is an enjoyable event year in and year out.

This year, with no tournament to play, there’s not supposed to be a Selection Sunday. After all, with no tournament, is there a point?

Former Michigan head basketball coach John Beilein believes there absolutely is:

He makes good points, like with Rutgers for example. It has traditionally been a program that hasn’t seen much success in men’s hoops. This year, however, that all changed. And, undoubtedly, the Scarlet Knights were supposed to be going dancing this postseason.

Wouldn’t it be exciting — even though there are no games to be played, of course — to see your school’s name be called as one of the 68 teams to make the tournament? For a program like Rutgers, it certainly would be.

There would be some sadness considering the games would never be played, but to have a hypothetical bracket put in place would at least put some joy to what has been a sad end of the season.

Kevin Cunningham

Kevin covers Big Ten football for Saturday Tradition.