Los Angeles Times - 13.03.2020

LATIMES.COM/SPORTS FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2020D5

COLLEGES

Even before the end ar-

rived so suddenly, the two

winningest players in the

history of USC men’s basket-

ball could feel it inching ever

closer. Nick Rakocevic had

already started pondering

his legacy. Jonah Mathews

hoped to solidify his with an

unforgettable final run, be-

ginning with his buzzer

beater to beat UCLA on Sat-

urday.

Together, the decorated

seniors dreamed of finishing

their careers with a flourish.

But neither, nor anyone

else for that matter, could’ve

expected those final, pre-

cious moments to play out

like this, with the NCAA

tournament canceled amid

a global pandemic and the

sports world halted in a col-

lective quarantine. By

Thursday morning, the end

wasn’t just at their doorstep.

It had kicked the door in and

pulled the rug out from

under their feet.

Their collegiate careers

were over. In one fell swoop.

“It wasn’t Oregon or

Duke or North Carolina — it

was the coronavirus that

ended my college career,” a

stunned Rakocevic said, less

than an hour after the NCAA

announced it was canceling

the tournament and all

other championship events

through spring. “I’m still in

shock. I don’t even know

what’s happening right

now.”

As the NCAA and its

member universities took

drastic steps to stop the

spread of coronavirus, col-

legiate athletes across the

nation found themselves

coping with the realities of

that decision. The college

sports calendar would go on

without its signature event.

Championships of every

other kind were cancelled as

far out as the College World

Series, which was scheduled

for June.

Within USC athletics,

everything would soon grind

to a halt.

All classes would remain

online until at least April 14,

with anyone leaving for

spring break expected to

stay away until then.

All practices, camps and

recruiting efforts were sus-

pended until further notice.

That included USC’s spring

football practice, which be-

gan just one day earlier.

“Our hearts ache for our

student-athletes, coaches,

alumni, fans, and all those

affected throughout the

world by the COVID-19 pan-

demic,” USC athletic direc-

tor Mike Bohn said in a

statement. “The health,

safety, and well-being of our

student-athletes is always at

the forefront of everything

we do. Therefore, our uni-

versity and athletics depart-

ment support the decisions

made today by the NCAA

and the Pac-12 Conference.

“These are unprecedent-

ed days for all of us. I have

communicated to our stu-

dent-athletes that we are

here to support them howev-

er we can. Our Trojan Fam-

ily will be stronger for having

endured these challenges to-

gether.”

But there was no solace

in that promise for those

whose collegiate careers

came to an abrupt close on

Thursday. Even as measures

to combat the coronavirus

escalated in the preceding

days, Rakocevic never be-

lieved that canceling the

NCAA tournament was a

genuine possibility. It felt

unimpeachable.

Then, he woke up to Ma-

thews frantically relaying

the first wave of mass can-

cellation news. The Big Ten

and Southeastern Confer-

ence had canceled their con-

ference tournaments. USC

was scheduled to face Arizo-

na in a few hours at T-Mobile

Arena, where fans had al-

ready been barred.

Thirty minutes later, the

Pac-12 followed suit, cancel-

ing its tournament. The

team made plans to fly

home.

“First and foremost, life is

more important than

basketball,” Mathews said

via the USC athletics Twit-

ter account. “We’re all wish-

ing everybody the best of

health and wellness around

the country.”

But while other athletes

lamented the nationwide

cancellations, none were af-

fected quite like those at the

close of their collegiate ca-

reers. Many would never get

the same chance again.

That realization hit

Rakocevic all at once, in a

bus heading south on Inter-

state 15. The senior forward

opted not to fly with the

team, instead riding back

with a couple of assistant

coaches.

When the NCAA made its

announcement, he called

Mathews right away.

“We had so much in-

vested together, these four

years,” Rakocevic said. “We

came in together, and this

year, we’d told ... ourselves

we’d put the team on our

backs.”

They had helped USC to

a 22-9 record and a probable

spot in the NCAA tourna-

ment. Now, they could go no

further. For a reason neither

could have ever imagined.

But the end had arrived.

That much Rakocevic knew.

Even if the NCAA were to of-

fer additional eligibility to

those impacted like him, the

senior forward knew he

wouldn’t accept it. It was

time to move forward.

“As sad as it is to say, my

college career for me ended

on this bus ride back to Los

Angeles,” Rakocevic said. “I

don’t plan on coming back.

It wouldn’t feel right. This

was my last chance at

playing in the NCAA tourna-

ment.

“It’s done for me.”

Rakocevic’s

biggest defeat

at USC by far

Senior was aiming for

tournament heroics,

winds up with long

bus ride home.

By Ryan Kartje

SENIORNick Rakocevic led the Trojans to a 22-9

record and a likely berth in the NCAA tournament.

Mark J. TerrillAssociated Press

‘We had so much

invested together,

these four years.

... We’d told ...

ourselves we’d put

the team on our

backs.’

— Nick Rakocevic

USC senior

LAS VEGAS — It was a
wake-up call that made
them want to fall back into a
deep slumber, hoping it was
all just an unimaginable
dream.
UCLA men’s basketball
players were roused inside
their team hotel Thursday
morning, learning they were
headed home from the
Pac-12 tournament in Las
Vegas without having lost a
game. The Bruins wouldn’t
even get to play in their
quarterfinal scheduled for
that evening at T-Mobile
Arena against California.
“We went and woke them
up and told them we’re out
of here, they canceled it,”
Bruins coach Mick Cronin
said, “we’re going to go eat
breakfast and get on the
plane.”
More crushing news
would come a few hours lat-
er as part of a shock wave im-
pacting every UCLA team
participating in winter and
spring sports.
Cronin learned from a re-
porter’s text message upon
landing at Los Angeles In-
ternational Airport that the
NCAA tournament had
been called off because of
concerns related to the co-
ronavirus outbreak, an un-
precedented development
in the history of college
sports.
“The bus ride from LAX
back to campus was silent,”
Cronin said. “Everybody’s in
shock.”
Cronin gathered his play-
ers inside the Mo Ostin Cen-
ter to deliver a message to a
team that would not play on
despite having won 11 of its
last 14 games, positioning it-
self for an at-large bid for the
NCAA tournament.
“I told them, ‘If this is the
worst thing that happens in
their life, they’re going to
have a great life,’ ” Cronin
said. “That being said, I feel
for them. It’s tough. It’s ter-

rible for them because they

put in such hard work.”

Cronin said he felt espe-

cially bad for fifth-year sen-

iors Prince Ali and Alex

Olesinski, who had given so

much to the team and would

never put on a UCLA jersey

again. He also regretted that

his team would not be re-

warded for its growth over

the season’s last two

months, when it went from a

tie for last place in the Pac-12

to second in the conference

standings.

“We’ve been on such a

magic-carpet-ride run from

oblivion to probably making

the NCAA tournament,”

Cronin said, “we’ve been

having a lot of fun and then

all of a sudden it’s over.”

But did it have to end?

Did officials make the right

call in halting postseason

college basketball for the

first time since the inaugu-

ral NCAA tournament was

staged in 1939?

“I don’t know if they had

any choice,” Cronin said. “I

think their only other option

would have been to buy a

week and see if they could

have come up with a contin-

gency plan.”

Cronin said he half-

heartedly scouted the open-

ing-round Pac-12 tourna-

ment game between Cal and

Stanford, figuring the tour-

nament was probably going

to be canceled after officials

said no fans would be al-

lowed into the arena for the

remaining games.

“I’ll be honest with you, I

had an eerie feeling watch-

ing the Cal-Stanford game

that it didn’t matter who

[won],” Cronin said. “Even

before that, I just had a bad

feeling. To me, once they

said no fans, it’s over. I never

thought it was going to hap-

pen.”

The coach said he

reached out to a handful of

friends after it was an-

nounced that fans would be

barred from the arena, ask-

ing who was going to protect

players who seemed to be

putting themselves at risk of

contracting the virus by

touching the same ball rack,

sharing the same locker

room and sitting in the same

chairs on the dais after

games.

Compounding the situa-

tion, those same players

seemed uncertain about the

severity of the virus they

were trying to avoid.

“They’re terribly disap-

pointed they’re not playing,”

Cronin said, “but then part

of them, it’s like, hey, can I

even go outside, coach?”

As part of protective

measures, the school an-

nounced that all practices

and team activities would be

suspended through at least

March 29; on- and off-cam-

pus recruiting and related

travel would be suspended

until further notice; and on-

and off-campus camps and

clinics would be suspended

until further notice.

Meanwhile, other UCLA

teams also grappled with

the realization that their

seasons were over. The base-

ball, softball and women’s

beach volleyball teams, all

national championship con-

tenders, won’t be able to add

to the school’s massive haul

of titles.

Cori Close, coach of the

10th-ranked women’s

basketball team that was vy-

ing for its first Final Four ap-

pearance, learned that the

NCAA tournament had

been canceled from her

smartphone.

Close had girded her

team for the possibility earli-

er in the day as worries over

the coronavirus grew, but

seeing the official announce-

ment only deepened her

sadness. Her immediate

thought was of redshirt sen-

ior Japreece Dean having

completed her final practice

as a Bruin.

“Dang it,” Close said as

the reality set in.

The announcement

wiped out a season that in-

cluded a program-record

16-0 start. The Bruins (26-5)

were one win from tying the

second-highest total in

school history and tying the

most wins for a season under

Close. They were likely to

have been selected to host

first- and- second-round

games in the NCAA tourna-

ment.

The UCLA women’s gym-

nastics team was also con-

templating an unhappy end-

ing, its senior day scheduled

for Saturday having been

called off as well as the

NCAA regionals the school

was set to host the first

weekend in April.

Nine seniors, including

Olympic gold medalists

Kyla Ross and Madison Ko-

cian, were left to bid their

fans a virtual farewell.

Kocian tweeted “no

words,” above a statement

from the NCAA announcing

that its winter and spring

championships would no

longer be held. “Can’t believe

it’s over just like that.”

Times staff writer Thuc Nhi

Nguyen contributed to this

report.

Bruins’

hoop

dreams

over

‘Magic carpet ride’

ends for men, as does

a record-setting pace

by the women.

By Ben Bolch

UCLAwon’t get to experience joyous moments like this, from a Dec. 1 game, after

the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments were canceled within hours of one another.

Luis SincoLos Angeles Times

His one shining moment
was going to play out in the
shadows, far removed from
the glare of millions watch-
ing and a television contract
worth billions of dollars.
Kenroy Higgins II had
been training for this mo-
ment since September. The
UCLA sprinter had flown
into Albuquerque as part of
a roughly 20-person contin-
gent of Bruins preparing to
compete in the NCAA men’s
and women’s indoor track
championships set to begin
Friday.
They were excited. They
were ready. They didn’t
make it out of the starting
blocks.
Higgins’ hopes of win-
ning the 60-yard dash crum-
bled when he was sum-
moned to an emergency
team meeting at 11:15 a.m.
Thursday.
He learned that every
Pac-12 team had to pull out of
the meet as part of the con-
ference’s decision to halt its
participation in all sports
competitions until further
notice because of the
spreading coronavirus.
It provided no solace sev-
eral hours later when the
NCAA announced that it
would no longer hold any of
its winter or spring champi-
onship events.
“It’s definitely heart-
breaking,” Higgins said by
telephone, “for us to put in
all this work and you can’t do
anything about it. The reac-
tion was just shock.”

Higgins said there were

“a lot of tears,” especially

among those whose college

careers had ended because

they were seniors and their

eligibility had expired.

There would be more meets

to come for Higgins, a sopho-

more from Oakland who had

been a running back on the

Bruins’ football team before

transitioning to track at the

end of his freshman year.

Higgins said he had not

fretted about the co-

ronavirus until NBA players

tested positive.

“At first I wasn’t worried

because it’s only really the

elderly people who have

been dying from it,” Higgins

said, “but now I see people

like [Utah Jazz guard] Don-

ovan Mitchell with the co-

ronavirus and I don’t know

what his symptoms are or

how bad he is, so now I’m a

little worried. It’s making me

feel like it’s more serious

than everybody’s actually

talking about.”

UCLA had flown com-

mercially to and from the

track meet, meaning that

the Bruins were exposed to

others in the security line, at

the gate and aboard their

aircraft, increasing their po-

tential exposure to the virus.

“Now we’re about to go

back to the airport,” Higgins

said, “and there ain’t no

telling who’s got the virus or

where you can even eat at or

sit at, stuff like that.”

The uncertainty would

continue once Higgins re-

turned to campus.

“I don’t even know what

the plan is once we get back

to L.A.,” Higgins said, “be-

cause classes are canceled,

we can’t practice, so I don’t

know if they’re going to can-

cel our whole outdoor sea-

son.”

It was a surreal ending to

real championship hopes, a

story that became news-

worthy for all the wrong rea-

sons.

“I definitely can’t believe

all this,” Higgins said. “It just

sucks because I know I

planned on doing real great

at this meet.”

UCLAsprinter Kenroy Higgins II during training for the now-canceled NCAA

men’s and women’s indoor track championships that were slated to begin Friday.

UCLA Athletics

Premature finish line for sprinter

Higgins’ hopes of

winning dash for

UCLA crumble when

Pac-12 halts meet.

By Ben Bolch