College basketball's end came quickly; now come questions

The Boilermakers had finished their Thursday morning shoot-around in Indianapolis at the Irsay Family YMCA down the street from Bankers Life Fieldhouse when the Big Ten's decision to call off the remainder of the Big Ten Tournament came down. The Boilermakers had woken up that morning expecting to play Ohio State at 6:30 p.m., even though questions were growing louder over whether the Big Ten Tournament would be go on as planned.

Hours later, to no one's surprise in light of all that's gone on the past few days amidst concern over the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA men's and women's tournaments were called off, the respective NIT events with them. The NBA and NHL seasons are suspended and Major League Baseball's delayed, and now the college sports season is over.

Purdue basketball's season ended with a 16-15 record, but a season that'll go down as an asterisk or incomplete in its hoops history immortalizes the unknown as just that. The Boilermakers had work to do to make the NCAA Tournament, but they were denied that chance, as so many around the sport were denied chances of varying significance, as the sports world ground to a halt very quickly and life, period, as we know it, was altered considerably this week.

Purdue coach Matt Painter didn't speak with media Thursday, but the following was posted on his Twitter account after word came down the college basketball season was over: "We are disappointed we aren’t able to continue our season, but this is much bigger than basketball. This is a worldwide issue and we understand that difficult decisions needed to be made."

The news ended the college careers of seniors Evan Boudreaux, Jahaad Proctor and Tommy Luce, but also an elite class of seniors around the Big Ten who helped make the conference season so memorable.

The Big Ten as a whole lost out to circumstance here. This was a historic season, one in which 10 teams were likely headed to the NCAA Tournament, while Purdue might have made it 11 with a couple wins in Indy. The Boilermakers were just 16-15, but finished the season 32nd in the NET rankings.

For as much as Purdue's seniors were hurt by their careers ending as they did, imagine that of Cassius Winston at Michigan State, maybe one of the conference's all-time greats. Or Lamar Stevens, the key figure in Penn State reaching heights largely unseen for that program at the end of his four-year career. Or Anthony Cowan, who led Maryland to its first championship as a member of the Big Ten. Or Michigan's Zavier Simpson ...

None of those players got their last NCAA Tournament.

And Rutgers didn't get its first in a generation.

Such stories pale in comparison to the severity of a public-health crisis, but such is college basketball's reality following an extraordinary, unprecedented series of events that now beg the question of when normalcy can resume.

What about recruiting? No one's going to be leaving their campuses to recruit. Is there going to be a grassroots spring season or evaluation period?

What about the coaching carousel? When do schools begin making coaching changes — without postseason results to make those decisions based off — and making hires?

Is scheduling for next year affected by the sport grinding to a halt?

Purdue has an overseas trip booked for August. That's a long way off, but also no small endeavor from a logistical perspective.

This is a pandemic, and the reasonable presumption is that concerns won't lift any time soon. In the meantime, unknown.

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