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Coronavirus and sports: NCAA cancels tournament; MLB delays season
Reid Laymance
KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 14: A view of the Big 12 logo on the court before a quarterfinal Big 12 tournament game between the Iowa State Cyclones and Baylor Bears on March 14, 2019 at Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The NCAA is cancelling March Madness, and MLB is pushing back the start of its season in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The NCAA, one day after saying the basketball tournament would continue without fans, changed gears and cancelled the basketball tournaments and all remaining winter and spring championships.
MLB announced that spring training was canceled and the start of the season would be pushed back at least two weeks.
The Astros were off on Thursday when the news was announced.
It was the latest in a series of moves in reaction to the pandemic, one day after the NBA suspended its season on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the UH basketball team was on its bus headed to Fort Worth for the AAC tournament when it got the news.
Texas and Texas Tech were about to take the court in Kansas City for the Big 12 when they were told.
Both leagues were canceling their post-season tournaments because of the coronavirus.
The Southland tournament in Katy was also canceled as well as the SWAC (TSU and Prairie View).
The Big Ten, ACC, SEC and Pac-12 canceled the remainder of their post-season basketball tournaments. The Big East canceled its tournament at halftime of an early round game between Creighton and St. John's.
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Thursdays' other moves:
– The National Hockey League has suspended its season.
– Major League soccer announced it would suspend its season for 30 days. The Dynamo were set to host Seattle on Saturday.
– The NFL is canceling its spring meetings.
– The UIL suspended the state basketball tournament midway through a Class 3A game between Coldspring and Dallas Madison.
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– ESPN reported that a second Jazz player, Donovan Mitchell, had tested positive for the coronavirus.
– Conference USA (Rice) and the SEC (A&M) also suspended regular season play in all sports. C-USA is indefinite. The SEC is until March 30. The Pac-12 also canceled all sports competitions until further notice.
– NASCAR will race in Atlanta this weekend but without fans.
– Kansas and Duke are suspending all athletic competitions.
– Major League Rugby is suspending its season for 30 days.
-- The Boston Marathon was postponed until fall.
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Reach Reid on
Sports editor Reid Laymance is in his second tour of duty with the Houston Chronicle. A graduate of Westbury High School and The University of Texas at Austin, Laymance started his career at The Dallas Morning News in 1983 before moving to the National Sports Daily.
Reid came to the Houston Chronicle in 1991 and helped oversee the paper's coverage of the Rockets' back-to-back championships. He left the Houston Chronicle to be sports editor at the San Jose Mercury News then moved to the Boston Globe as a senior assistant sports editor, where he coordinated coverage for the Red Sox's World Series wins in 2004 and 2007, as well as a seemingly endless series of Patriots Super Bowl victories. From Boston, Laymance went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as sports editor and another World Series win (Cardinals, 2011) before returning to his Houston roots.
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