March, one of the most celebrated months in sports, just went from promising to bleak. After the NBA announced suspension of league play on Wednesday, there was a domino effect across the sporting world. First, the NCAA announced cancellations of conference tournaments and eventually broke the news that the NCAA national tournaments would not be played. March Madness, no more. March Sadness, for sure.
MLB was soon to follow. While rainy weather initially canceled Thursday’s Brewers games, the news quickly shifted to a full-on post-ponement of Spring Training. MLB owners met that morning to discuss how to move forward and eventually announced opening day will also be pushed back by at least two weeks.
Later in the day, the NHL and Major League Soccer, the PGA, and NASCAR hit the pause button, too. The sporting world has come to a grinding halt. March Sadness, indeed.
Fans are left scrambling with how to fill their time. No more NBA games, NCAA bracket fun. No looking forward to the crack of the bat on opening day. Instead we are stocking up on TP and hand sanitizer. We have gone from March Madness to March Sadness.
We all recognize WHY these things needed to happen, but why are we taking it so hard here in Wisconsin?
Bucks
While our Milwaukee Bucks suffered a few recent losses, they are still arguably the best team in the NBA. How will a 30 day (or more) hiatus affect Giannis and teammates? Certainly time off will impact all teams, but will it mess with our mojo and momentum?
Brewers
We all love baseball, and the Brewers are beloved across the state. This time of year, our thoughts turn to warmer weather, tailgating, and brews at the ballpark. How will suspension of Spring Training impact The Crew? How does Craig Counsell get his team ready for regular season play without the last few weeks for players to polish their skills? And when can we expect the bats to crack and the ball to smack the glove? Will we have a shortened season, and how will it look? No Cubs home-opener?
Badgers
After a rough start to the season, when Greg Gard was potentially facing the chopping block, Bucky fought back hard. Who would have thought the Badgers would end up tied as Big Ten Conference champs, and a one-seed for their conference tournament? How far would they have gone?
Marquette
The Golden Eagles season was going in the opposite direction, and a lot appeared to be riding on Marquette’s play in the Big East tournament. Would Wojo keep his job if the team was one and done in the NCAA tournament? Or worse yet, if the team didn’t make the tourney at all? Now what for the Marquette program? Saddest of all is that Big East leading scorer, Markus Howard has played his last collegiate game.
What Now?
There are a lot of unanswered questions as the COVID-19 virus victimizes all facets of our lives. But one thing is sure, we love our teams and can’t wait for sports, of any type, to resume. Stay healthy, fans!
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