INDIANAPOLIS — Robert Morris University men’s basketball coach Andrew Toole stood next to the staging area near midcourt Tuesday night, the confetti strewn around him as the Colonials danced, mingled with fans and climbed ladders to cut down the nets at Corteva Coliseum.
It was a moment of pure joy for the school in suburban Pittsburgh, but for Toole, winning his first Horizon League tournament title came with bittersweet memories from the last time his team earned an NCAA tournament bid — two days before the event was canceled on March 12, 2020, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It was the worst locker room I’ve ever been in,” he said minutes after Tuesday’s victory over Youngstown State, describing a team meeting from five years earlier.
“To be part of the greatest tournament in college athletics, and maybe sports in general, and you don’t see that come to fruition when you’ve earned it, when you’ve won it, it’s a killer. I’ve had more opportunities to try to do it again, but these guys only have a short amount of time, so when you get it in your hands and it gets robbed from you, it’s heartbreaking.”
It wasn’t just Toole and Robert Morris, of course. Nor was it just college basketball. On that Thursday afternoon, NCAA officials announced the cancellation of all remaining winter championship events and spring sports. Other sporting events around the world, from kids to the pros, ended up being affected as well, including the Tokyo Olympics that were postponed from that summer to 2021.