by Bulldog2323 » March 5th, 2021, 8:34 pm
This ruins the Elgin retirement party for sure. Tomorrow is a big day not just for the competing teams but for the tournament & Arch Madness in general. If Drake loses tomorrow, this embarrassment gets quickly & quietly forgotten as Drake will be out of the NCAA, maybe an NIT team, and "well it didn't matter anyway" will settle in to most fans. If Drake wins Arch Madness, there will be those who put the asterisk by this unless Drake makes a deep run in the NCAA tournament to silence critics.
If things between the MVC & St. Louis were better understood, would it have mattered? Illinois protocols are even stricter as they're only allowing 50 fans per game for the women's tournament. Do you try to move the event to Iowa or Indiana, assuming you can find a venue? The only thing that's a certainty right now is there are 30 other conference commissioners calling emergency planning meetings right now.
Drake's AD Brian Hardin called into the Drake radio show. I didn't hear it, but from what I was told it sounded like Drake wanted to play, UNI was willing to play short handed, the MVC was willing to let it happen, but St. Louis insisted too many players be pulled for UNI to field a team.