‘In the blink of an eye,’ Aggies have played their last game

Utah State University men’s basketball players are coping with the realization that their season has come to an end.

“It’s crazy how everything happened so fast, and the turn of events just happened in the blink of an eye,” senior guard Diogo Brito said.

The Utah State University men’s basketball team was one of 13 teams to have qualified for the NCAA tournament after the Aggies’ victory over No. 5 San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference title game. But when the tournament was cancelled on Thursday over coronavirus concerns, the conference championship retroactively became many players’ final game.

“Some guys were saying their goodbyes and I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it,” Brito said. “I just wasn’t ready to say goodbye.”

It will be the first time since the tournament began in 1939 that “March Madness” will not be held.

Senior guard Sam Merrill was an instrumental part in Utah State pulling off an unexpected win in the final game. He became the first player in Mountain West history to win back-to-back tournament MVPs.

Still, the realization that he wouldn’t be able to play in the NCAA tournament was hard to process.

“We were expecting it was going to happen, just because of all the cancelations that had gone on,” Merrill said. “But even then, when you’re expecting it, it was tough knowing that not only we weren’t going to play in the tournament, that we weren’t going to have that opportunity.”

Both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, as well as all spring sports in Division One athletics, have been cancelled.

“This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement Thursday.

Merrill said it took him some time to process the announcement.

“Thirty minutes later it finally hit me that, like, that was it,” he said. “My career ended just like that.”

Twitter: @dren_sports