The NCAA recently canceled the rest of the Truman State University’s men’s basketball team’s season because of health concerns over the COVID-19 virus.
A few days after Selection Sunday for Div. II basketball it was announced that the national tournament was going to be postponed, and later canceled altogether.
The timing couldn’t have been worse for the Bulldogs as they were riding high off of a regular season conference championship and had just won the entire GLVC tournament, from which they started as the third seed. In the championship game, the ’Dogs were able to defeat the other regular season champ and top-seeded University of Missouri-St. Louis for the second time this season in another very close game with a final score of 53-52.
Seedings for the national tournament were announced later that night and Truman was able to secure a two seed for their region and were scheduled to play the seven seed Ferris State University in a battle of Bulldogs. The ’Dogs were placed in the midwest region hosted by the University of Indianapolis. UIndy and Truman were just two of the five GLVC teams to make the tournament in the same region. Due to their familiarity of possible opponents and their conference titles, it’s safe to say the Bulldogs had a great opportunity to make it out of their region and a real chance at a national championship.
“Everyone is beyond disappointed that our dream and goal was taken away from us by things outside our control,” forward Cade McKnight said. “Never getting the closure of a loss or a run all the way to the end … leaves a lot of what ifs. But at the same time there are a lot more important things in life than basketball.”
Even though the season wasn’t able to be played out in its entirety, it was certainly a year for the record books for Truman. The Bulldogs were able to have an undefeated record at home, claim a share of the regular season conference championship and go on to win the conference tournament.