NCAA President Mark Emmert announced Wednesday that only essential staff and limited family members will be allowed to attend the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, which are scheduled to start next week at multiple locations throughout the country.
NCAA President Mark Emmert statement on limiting attendance at NCAA events: https://t.co/TIHHJjdse5 pic.twitter.com/8I1HdceDfN
— NCAA (@NCAA) March 11, 2020
It's unclear what this means for the University of Arizona. The athletic department has put in a bid to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Women's Tournament at McKale Center. UA officials still have a desire to host, even in an empty arena. A UA spokesman declined initial comment, citing the fluidity of the situation.
Both the UA men's and women's teams are expected to make the postseason.
Arizona's Pac-12 Men's Tournament game against Washington will go on as scheduled with fans in attendance. The Wildcats and Huskies tip off at 2:30 p.m. The Pac-12 announced Tuesday that it was taking steps to limit the spread of the virus, including cleaning the arena, adding hand sanitizer stations and removing the media's access to open locker rooms. The Pac-12 also rescheduled its annual Hall of Honor event, scheduled for this week.
"The priority of the Conference and our member universities is the health and well-being of our student-athletes, campus communities, working and volunteer event personnel and all those who attend Pac-12 events," the conference said in a statement.
Emmert said Wednesday the NCAA also was looking into moving the men's Final Four from Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium to a smaller arena.
The 68-team field for the men's tournament is scheduled to be announced Sunday and the 64-team women's tournament field is to be unveiled Monday. Games begin Tuesday and Wednesday on the men's side in Dayton, Ohio, where earlier Wednesday the governor said he would issue an order to restrict spectator access to indoor sporting events.
The Mid-American Conference on Tuesday announced it was closing its men's and women's basketball tournament games at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, home of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and scheduled site of the men's NCAA games, to the general public. The women's tournament started Wednesday.
The Big West Conference announced a similar move, not allowing the general public into its basketball tournament games to be played this week at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Conference college basketball tournaments are in full swing across the country this week. The Atlantic Coast Conference is in Day 2 of its five-day men's tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Pac-12 played the first game of its tournament in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Later Wednesday, the Southeastern Conference was to begin its men's tournament in Nahsville, Tennessee; the Big East was set to start at Madison Square Garden in New York; and the Big Ten was also scheduled to tip off in Indianapolis. There were no plans to restrict fan access to those events.
March Madness hits another level next week with the start of the NCAA Tournament to crown a national champion, one of the most popular events on the American sports calendar.
There are eight first- and second-round sites for the men's tournament, scheduled to be played March 19-22. Locations include Cleveland; Spokane, Washington; Albany, New York; Sacramento, California; and Omaha, Nebraska. The four regional sites for the second weekend of the tournament are Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Houston and New York. The Final Four is scheduled to be held in at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, with the semifinals on April 4 and the championship game April 6.
The women's tournament first- and second-round games begin March 21 and will be played at 16 sites, mostly on or close the campuses of the top seeded teams. The regionals will be played in Dallas, Greenville, South Carolina; Portland, Oregon; and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Final Four will be held in New Orleans on April 3 and 5.
Sweeping Arizona border measure could be approved this week
