Well – I was happy with CBS. I turned the channel to watch the 1982 Georgetown vs North Carolina final.

And on CBS is the live special report of the White House talking about the Coronavirus Task Force.

So the coronavirus has even managed to stop the showing of replays of historical basketball games. Oh well – guess I will be watching the last Harry Potter movie and playing Madden Mobile on my phone. Such a sad March for the Lunatic

They are going to be playing some of the best games of tournament history this weekend in place of the lost weekend of games. Some of the games that I remembered was the 1983 NC State vs Houston game as well as the 2016 UNC vs Villanova game.

Still not the same as the real drama of games – but they are doing their best to bring some basketball to March.

No First 4 games tonight. No Vegas Lines to pour through and predict. No complaining about what teams should have been selected (well except maybe that no teams were selected).

I ended up watching some movie about Hating Middle School and a cartoon of How to Train Your Dragon with Katie.

I can’t even remember the name of the main character of the movie so can’t even blog about that. The Dragon Riders were trying to save Astrid from the Scourge of Oden – a disease that turns you green and kills you after three moons. Seems a fitting way of ending the night with everything going on. Don’t think Katie even realized a connection – sometimes it would be nice to be 10 again.

Oh I did stock up Gelati Celesti ice cream (need to support our local small businesses) and alcohol (seemed like a good idea at the time). Why bother with toilet paper, need to get the real essentials….

Hope everyone is staying safe.

Their first quarterfinal game between St John’s and Creighton kicked off at Noon.

The other 5 major conferences (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, and ACC) along with the American, Atlantic 10, Conference USA, MAC and WAC all cancelled their tournaments.

If you go to ESPN scores page, almost every game has next to it – Cancelled Due To Coronavirus Concerns.

I don’t see at this point how we can have a NCAA Championship Tournament. If the commissioners from the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, SEC and Pac 12 (which are probably good for having at least 30-40 percent of the teams in the tourney) say that they are listening to public health officials and it is not safe for their athletes and the public to play, I don’t see how the NCAA can say – you are wrong, we are going to have a tournament.

I might be wrong – but this might be the saddest March ever. Not the type of March Madness the Lunatic was hoping for…..

To be fair, everyone’s health is the most important concern – if cancelling is the right answer, then it is the right answer.

At this point, the only thing I don’t get is why not keep playing the tournaments. All the athletes are already there – they have already been exposed to each other and the arena and their hotel – they have already closed the doors to fans – they have to travel back to their schools whether that be today or Sunday. It doesn’t feel like there is any more risk to them at this point for playing the games where they already are.

This feels more like a decision to force the NCAA to protect them from future travel and cancel the big tournament. I can support that – the fan in me wants to see basketball, but if everyone is cancelling for the sake of public health, it makes sense to force the NCAA to do the same.

But that makes the Lunatic really sad……

The Big 10, SEC and American conferences all just cancelled the remainder of their tournaments.

Have a feeling this is the tip of the iceberg based on the last 24 hours.

To be honest, there is one last mid-major tournament final that gets preference tonight before the major conferences take their turn on the stage. The Patriot final at 7:30 pm EST will see Colgate try to defend their regular season title against 2nd place Boston University. Colgate managed to win both games during the regular season against Boston – a third win sends them to the dance.

There are some major conferences in play but they are still all the early rounds. Things really get interesting for them tomorrow. But this isn’t Thursday’s viewing guide – so here are the bubble teams who found themselves stuck in an interesting early round game (or just games of interest).

2 pm – NC State vs Pittsburgh. Don’t know what to think about NC State – they have a NET ranking of 54 so they are in the discussion. Can’t really afford to lose this game.

5:30 pm – Arizona vs Washington. Arizona is also an interesting team. Their NET ranking of 14th says they are safely in the tournament. But I suspect things might get a little bit uncomfortable if they lose to Washington and their NET falls.

7 pm – St John’s vs Georgetown. A pair of teams in the 60s of the rankings. Don’t worry think either can get in without winning the Big East tourney (each has too many losses) – but these two teams should be evenly matched for an entertaining game.

7pm – Notre Dame vs Boston College. The Fighting Irish are in the 50s of NET. They have done that by winning the games they are supposed to but always falling short against the top teams. To have any chance they have to beat one of those top teams in the ACC – which implies they better beat BC so they can get a chance to do that Thursday.

8:30 pm – Indiana vs Nebraska. The Hoosiers are likely the Big 10s best hope to get 10 teams in the dance, since I can’t see my Boilers making it with 16 losses unless they get to the final on Sunday. Indiana doesn’t have 16 losses but – you don’t make a good impression by losing to Nebraska – who just added 2 football players to the team to fill their roster after suspending two players.

9 pm – Arkansas vs Vanderbilt. Arkansas is the best test of what the committee does with injuries. The Razorbacks are 19-7 this season with second leading scorer Isaiah Joe. But they went 0-5 while he was out for a knee injury. His return to the lineup has got Arkansas winning again (including recently against LSU). But we might not get to find out if the committee will look past their 7-11 SEC conference record due to the injury if they don’t handle business against Vandy.

9 pm – Stanford vs Cal. Stanford is like Arizona – really good NET ranking at 30 but don’t want the last memory of the committee being a lost to Cal.

9 pm – UNC vs Syracuse. Can a deep run in the ACC tourney get Syracuse to the dance (they have done it before). Can you believe the Tar Heels are so far under 500 that their season is over if they don’t win the ACC tourney? Last chances to watch Cole Anthony before he probably goes pro….

9:30 pm – Xavier vs DePaul. Not interested in the 9 pm games – then watch this Big East game. Xavier is one of the better ranked bubble teams in action on Wednesday – and DePaul is much improved (they were 12-1 before the tough Big East conference completely derailed their season).

11:30 pm – Colorado vs Washington State. You are still awake!!!! Well there is still basketball for you. Colorado was ranked for a while and like Arizona has a great NET ranking – so they are probably in. But Colorado has lost their last 4 games, so it would be good to not let that continue against Washington State.

So – while not a lot of games, there is still plenty to watch. Enjoy the games!!!

Big 10 Champion against Big East champion for the National Championship!!!!!!!! It is bittersweet – so excited for the finale, but that also means that there is only one more college basketball game left this year.

Fortunately, I am also a golf fanatic and so the Masters softens the blow for a little while.

Should be a great game tonight – enjoy the Championship!!!!!

Wow – the Villanova Wildcats came out ready to show they were the number one team in the country. Before Kansas could even know what hit them, Villanova jumped out to a 22-4 lead and never looked back. Eric Paschall scored 24 points and Jalen Brunson scored 18, as the two juniors led the Wildcats to a 95-79 victory.

Villanova tied the record for most three pointers in a Final Four by the end of the first half with 13 of them. The Wildcats would finish the game with a record breaking 18 threes.

Congratulations to the Big East Champions, Villanova Wildcats who have moved one step closer to a National Championship. Only one game left – it will be the Villanova Wildcats and the Michigan Wolverines playing for the right to cut down the nets while One Shining Moment plays in the background.

Loyola-Chicago had built a 10 point lead and everything looked like the Ramblers story was going to continue to Monday night.

But then Charles Matthews hit a jumper, and Jaaron Simmons, Duncan Robinson and Mo Wagner hit three pointers to tie the game for Wolverines with 7 minutes to go. And then Wagner took over the game. The junior forward scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds leading Michigan to a 69-57 victory over the Cinderella Ramblers.

Congratulations to the Big 10 champions, Michigan Wolverines – who will now await the Villanova / Kansas winner to play for the National Championship. And one last thanks to Loyola-Chicago who had a very memorable run to a magical season.