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if things go to crap, this might be like the last basketball game with fans ever, but no pressure guys
Brian: "Let's go back to the Big 12 Tournament because that is the last thing where it parcipitisply dropped off. Take us us through that time frame. What were the calls were like?" Gene: "Yeah, I think what people saw happen was, literally, the start of the tournament there was a debate. We had a set of meetings right before the tournament started. Bob (Bowlsby), our Commissioner, thought that we probably should cancel that set of games. We quickly adjusted because we were literally an hour and a half away from gates opening. The security there said, 'That's going to cause too many problems.' If we're going to cancel or adjust the fanbase, let's do that later. So we went ahead with the games on (Wednesday) night. During those games, as we saw, things began to unfold with the NBA. We then announced that we would play the games, but we would go to limited fans the rest of the tournament. Then (Wednesday) night, during our game, is when the NBA canceled their one game and then eventually canceled their season. We met again on (Thursday) morning, an emergency meeting, and that's when Bob was getting messages from the NCAA. He was getting messages from the other Power 5 commissioners. So we were literally getting text messages during the course of our meeting while we were deciding. Then Bob would say, 'Well, the Pac-12 is canceling theirs, and the Big Ten is canceling theirs.' So, it was really kind of driven by what everybody else was doing. Then, ultimately, we canceled our tournament. It was very difficult. I had to go over and tell our women's team - they were right across the street. There were a lot of tears. Casey Scott was able to tell the men's team. Again, a lot of emotion, particularly for the seniors. Then it just continued to evolve in terms of the NCAA coming out and cancelling the spring sports. That caught us all a little bit by surprise, we were a little surprised by that. Now, of course where we are today, it makes a lot of sense. So, coming back and just having those conversations with our baseball team. The track athletes were at the national championship. I asked TJ (Tejaswin Shankar) our high jumper last night, 'How did you find out? Did they bring you together?' He said, 'No, coaches were literally hearing about it and they just said we're done.' So here, kids were getting ready to compete, and it's heartbreaking. Lauren (Taubert), our senior, was just devastated because it was her last chance. So, those are stories, but everybody is dealing with it. It's not just a K-State thing."
...parcipitisply...