CLEVELAND — James Whitford still remembers, vividly, what it was like to learn the pandemic had forced the Mid-American Conference to cancel its men’s basketball tournament last year.
Ball State’s coach can still recall how his team was “fighting like crazy” in Cleveland for a chance to play. His team was asked if they wanted to play and if they felt comfortable playing, and they did, and then that opportunity to compete for a conference title was taken from them anyway. Not only was Whitford disappointed, by the end of their drive home he said so much had happened in sports that in a matter of hours “it felt like they canceled the whole world.