The Missouri Valley Conference quarterfinal men’s basketball game on Friday between Drake and Northern Iowa has been canceled, the league announced.
Drake, currently in the bubble for the NCAA tournament, automatically advanced to the semifinals in St. Louis.
The league tweeted its announcement, saying an official statement was forthcoming, but gave no reason for the cancellation. The stadium reported that it was due to a problem with COVID-19 in the Northern Iowa program.
It is a particularly notable decision due to Drake’s status in the bubble. The Bulldogs, the two placed in the conference tournament, entered Friday as one of the “Last Four Byes” in Joe Lunardi’s last brace, with the ESPN analyst saying that Drake needed to win Friday’s quarterfinals and probably Saturday’s semifinal to stay in the big discussion.
The Bulldogs will face the Missouri State-Valparaíso winner in Saturday’s semifinal.
It marked the second withdrawal from the tournament of the week’s conference; Holy Cross was forced to withdraw from the Patriot League tournament due to problems with COVID, which allowed Loyola Maryland to move forward. Jacksonville and Charleston Southern were also forced to lose their conference tournaments due to problems with COVID.