Iowa Hawkeyes and basketball return to a better kind of March Madness this year

INDIANAPOLIS — Let's try this again.

It's Indianapolis, and Iowa is playing in the Big Ten men's basketball tournament here Friday night around 8 (CT). Last March 12, the Hawkeyes were to play Minnesota in the second game of the day's second round. There were to be no fans other than family members, unlike the night before when the tourney's two first-round games were played. The suddenly menacing COVID-19 threat caused a quick shift in how the Big Ten was proceeding with the rest of the event.

I spent the night before that Thursday in an Indianapolis hotel, flipping back and forth from cable news shows to the Big Ten tourney. Both made the likelihood of Iowa playing at all the next day seem less and less likely.

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg was on his team's sideline during his team's first-round game that night, visibly sicker as the contest progressed. His team was quarantined in its locker room after the game until just before midnight. Before the game had ended, Hoiberg was taken to a hospital where he tested positive for Influenza B, not COVID-19.

That night, the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder were pulled off the court before their NBA game in Oklahoma City. Less than an hour later, it was announced Utah's Rudy Gobert was the first U.S. professional athlete to test positive for COVID-19. Mere minutes later, the NBA suspended its season.

Iowa's team had arrived in Indianapolis earlier that day.

'When we got there, it was all systems go,' Hawkeyes Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'We checked into our hotel like we've always done. We had meetings, meal, then we all went over to see the game, the winner of which we were going to play. So it was Minnesota-Northwestern. We were then preparing to play Minnesota.

'It just became more evident that there were issues involved starting with the NBA players who contracted the virus. Then when Fred got sick on the bench, we didn't know if he had the virus or if he was just sick. It turned out he was just sick. Everything was hitting us all at once. We really didn't know what it was.'

I expected to wake up Thursday learning the Big Ten tourney was called off. But it was still on, sans fans. The parking ramp across the street from the downtown arena was mostly empty, as was the street itself. The Rutgers and Michigan players were warming up in front of almost nobody. It all was eerie.

Seventeen minutes before the noon game time, the tournament was canceled. The Hawkeyes, shortly before they were to get on a bus for the arena, got the crushing news.

'Those in charge had very difficult decisions to make, as we all know,' McCaffery said. 'We were prepared to play. We were prepared to play with fans. We were prepared to play without fans.

'I think initially we thought the tournament, the NCAA tournament that is, would proceed. Once they canceled the Big Ten tournament, the other one was canceled in short order.

'We were all just kind of numb-like. Families were in the lobby. Some of them had just arrived, getting ready to go to the game. Then, 'Hey, we're not playing.' Not only that, we're not playing again till next year.'

Then-freshman Iowa guard C.J. Fredrick embraced his parents at the hotel.

'I kind of had some tears in my eyes,' Fredrick recounted this week. 'Just because it was such a dream of mine to play in tournaments like these. What really put it in perspective was seeing (seniors) like Riley Till and Bakari (Evelyn) and Ryan (Kriener), what it really felt like for them. It had to be even worse.'

'It was a crazy experience,' Iowa's Luka Garza said. 'I felt bad for all our seniors. We were going to be in the (NCAA) tournament, and they missed out on that opportunity. I think it just provided our whole team with a lot of motivation going into this year, to make sure that once we get back to Indy, we're going to make it count.'

'Playing in the Big Ten tournament and the NCAA tournament has been a dream of mine since I've been a little kid,' Fredrick said. 'Last year sucked. It sucked for everybody. Life continues, and we have another opportunity now to play in the Big Ten tournament, to play in the NCAA tournament. So I'm extremely excited. I'm grateful for the opportunity.'

It's been a long year from the last time the Hawkeyes were in Indianapolis to now. For them and all basketball teams and fans, it's March again. A real March, one expects, not another surreal one.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com