MVC Quarterfinal Canceled

Game Canceled & Drake Advances

(St. Louis, MO) – History was made at Arch Madness Saturday. A game was canceled. The quarterfinal between Northern Iowa and Drake was canceled for what we believe were covid protocol issues. Rumors have swirled here at Enterprise Center.

What we know is that there is no game.

The Time Line

Roughly 40 minutes before the time for the teams to assemble, stretch and begin pre-game activities, the  Enterprise Center jumbotron suddenly adjusted upwards to sixty minutes and locked there.

We knew there was a problem.

Then came the news from a solid source that there was a positive covid test on the Northern Iowa basketball program. A solid source, but no league confirmation. Then suddenly Drake’s team appeared on the court shooting, stretching with the clock winding down. Hope sprung eternal.

While the Bulldogs were working out the Jumbotron changed the participating teams from the two Iowa squads to the 8:08 teams Valparaiso and Missouri State. We were depressed again.

 

 

Twitter posts started flooding in. A building official broke the news to Valley patrons.

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Employee from the @Enterprise_Cntr just said the next #ArchMadness matchup between @UNImbb (7) and @DrakeBulldogsMB (2) has been cancelled. Lots of rumors swirling about a possible #COVID19 positive case on one of the teams. #NCAA pic.twitter.com/yHk7nwXCfo

— Brian Munoz (@brianmmunoz) March 5, 2021

 

One Valley coach texted me wanting to know what I knew and then shared that he had heard from another coach that the UNI bus had left the premises with everyone on board.

Rumors Continue To Swirl

One source says it was the City of St. Louis that pulled the plug on the game. Another tells us the Valley teams that win, immediately get tested and that the UNI player (s) in question, came up positive Thursday night and a new test was taken Friday, hoping for a different result, similar to what happened to the Bradley team the day before.

Then there is this tweet from UNI play-by-play man Gary Rima (@oprsportsguy) that public health officials and not the Missouri Valley Conference made the decision.

 

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As U knw by now Panthernation the UNI vs Drake game will not b played. No official press release that I’ve seen yet but from what we could find out it was covid related w the Tier 1 group4 UNI- no game n drake wins. Latest word state of Missouri made the call n not MVC.Stay tuned

— Gary Rima (@oprsportsguy) March 6, 2021

 

We can’t sort all of this perfectly and we’re making no bold statements. What we know is that Northern Iowa’s season is over and Drake’s continues.

In this most strange of years, covid-19 has reared its ugly head once again and did damage to our beloved Missouri Valley Conference.

UNI’s loss of opportunity is crushing and for those players, coaches and administrators. Head coach Ben Jacobson is as classy as they come.

Do Good

 

Editor: Here is the Valley’s statement on the issue.