Missing in Action: Premier Programs Failing to Meet in NCAA Tournament

Just what the hell is an ardent sports fan supposed to do in the near future? In isolation with leftover green snowball cupcakes from St. Patrick's Day, how about binge watching re-runs of Australian Rules Football from ESPN's infancy? The immediate blame-game emotions processing perplexity ranged from pondering whether administrators portrayed incredible insight cancelling NCAA Tournament to wondering if bed-wetting situation climaxed chronic chaos in academia replete with climate-change charlatan generation of pampered panic-stricken gutless wonders. Navigating aimlessly akin to seniors Markus Howard (Marquette), Myles Powell (Seton Hall), Payton Pritchard (Oregon) and Cassius Winston (Michigan State) strolling off court on their own terms for final time (perhaps a couple of them sniffling after giving their all in setback despite bout with latest strain of flu), about the only thing we know at this stage is there remain powerhouses who never have battled each other in the NCAA tourney this year or any year.

Although the event is in its ninth decade, there are attractive power school match-ups never to have occurred. Long before we ever heard of coronavirus, the potentially entertaining intra-sectional playoff contests between storied programs never to take place in the NCAAs included:

• Georgetown vs. Indiana
• Georgetown vs. Michigan
• Georgetown vs. UCLA
• Michigan vs. St. John's
• North Carolina vs. St. John's
• Notre Dame vs. St. John's
• Notre Dame vs. UCLA
• Notre Dame vs. Villanova
• St. John's vs. UCLA
• Syracuse vs. UCLA