The men’s basketball game between Drake and Northern Iowa in the quarterfinals of Friday’s Missouri Valley Conference was 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. Stadium reported it was due to a COVID-19 problem within the Northern Iowa program.
It’s a particularly remarkable decision because of Drake’s status in the bubble. The Bulldogs, the 2 seeds in the conference tournament, went in on Friday as one of the “Last Four Byes” in Joe Lunardi’s final bracket, with the ESPN analyst saying Drake should win Friday’s quarter-final and likely the semi-finals. Saturday at the at-great discussion.
The Bulldogs will take on the winner of Missouri State-Valparaiso on Saturday in the semi-final.
It was the second conference tournament of the week; Holy Cross was forced to bow to the Patriot League tournament due to COVID issues, which allowed Loyola Maryland to move up. Jacksonville and Charleston Southern also had to miss their conference tournaments due to COVID issues.