INDIANAPOLIS — The last time Indianapolis hosted the Final Four, Brad Underwood barely saw the sunshine.
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Underwood’s Illinois team was a No. 1 seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, played entirely within the state of Indiana — and mostly Indianapolis — due to COVID-19 protocols. As the nation began emerging from the yearlong pandemic, college basketball bubbled itself up in Indy to crown a national champion.
One of the few creature comforts organizers could allow teams was the chance to stretch collective legs (while socially distancing) at Victory Field, the home of the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. For the most part isolated in their hotel rooms and meeting areas, players and coaches could at least breathe in some fresh air when allowed out onto the turf.
“We got let loose in the yard,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said, smiling. “All the teams were circling each other.”
Illinois never got that chance.
“The day we were supposed to go out on the baseball field,” Underwood explained, “it rained.”
Five years later, the Final Four is back in Indianapolis, this time under more familiar conditions. For the three head coaches here who worked through the challenges of 2021, and coached in that tournament, returning triggers memories of living through the last breathes of a season no one had ever seen before, and no one ever wants to see again.
How Indy hosted the NCAA Tournament during COVID-19
So little about that COVID-hit season seems recognizable now.
Testing and quarantining procedures sidelined players and canceled games. Some conferences allowed fans, others didn’t. Schedules were truncated, as everything became an even more extremely made-for-TV event.
“We were lucky, Hurley said, “just to be able to get a tournament in.”
The previous year’s Final Four, scheduled for Atlanta, was canceled along with the rest of the postseason. But the NCAA — eager to wind down the season fairly before turning toward normalcy that summer — elected to stick with Indianapolis in 2021.
There, it could utilize the infrastructure of a city experienced in the logistical challenge of large-scale sporting events.
Lucas Oil Stadium staged games including the national semifinals and final. But that tournament also camped out at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum, both Hinkle and (then-)Banker’s Life fieldhouses, and even Mackey Arena and Assembly Hall.
“We had to play at Purdue,” Hurley said. “It was a long ride.”
The result was a tournament that despite its challenges worked, at least well enough to get that season to the finish line.
How March Madness teams managed the bubble 2021 NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis
Organizers trial-ran the main event with the Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Teams were sequestered according to the same procedures. Men’s games were played inside a downsized Lucas Oil Stadium, while the women competed at what is now Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
For the first time all season, the conference allowed fans beyond team family and personnel in the stands, if only in small groups. Women’s games allowed 2,500 fans in, while men’s games were capped at 25% attendance in accordance with local regulations.
“It’s the last time I’ve been in this building,” said Underwood, whose Illinois team won the Big Ten Tournament in front of that limited crowd. “Being quarantined, and never really being able to celebrate that Big Ten victory, was all a unique experience.”
Teams camped out at local hotels, essentially for as long as they needed to. Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, at that time in his last season on Mark Few’s staff at Gonzaga, can’t remember his exact room number. But he walked the halls of the third floor of the downtown Marriott for “about a month.”
Everyone found ways to make proximity and seclusion work to their advantage.
With every team housed somewhere in the cluster of hotels canvassing the western part of downtown Indianapolis, coaches banded together to open a lounge with a nightly speakeasy feel.
During a long, strange stay in the Circle City, the chance to unwind with friends and colleagues was welcome.
“There may or may not have been a lounge that was created by the coaches that, they all hung out at night together, which was really cool,” Lloyd said. “It was almost like being in one of these reality shows, and the next day, Coach X would be gone. It would be like they were off the island.”
By and large, things ran smoothly. That dry run prepared both the NCAA and city organizers for a bubbled Big Dance.
It still did not always make the on-the-ground experience fantastic.
“They were literally knocking on your door and dropping food at your door,” Hurley said. “It wasn’t slop, but it was … maybe it was.”
Whatever the hardship, teams muddled through to the final, where Baylor lapped previously undefeated Gonzaga to win the Bears’ first national championship in the sport.
How Indy gave the country an NCAA Tournament 'our entire country' needed
Half a decade on, the sport and the world have gotten back to baseline. Even now, little about that experience seems real to the people who lived it.
“If you did great in that tournament, you deserve all the credit,” said Hurley, whose Huskies lost to Maryland in the first round. “If it went bad for you — and I’m not just saying that because it went bad for us — you should get a pass. That was a mess.”
Hurley’s point is well taken.
Four double-digit seeds reached the Sweet Sixteen. Underwood’s Illinois team got upset in the second round by Loyola-Chicago. Virginia, the reigning national champion held over from 2019, lost to a 13 seed in the first round, in a game played in Bloomington.
Shorn of any kind of homecourt or environmental advantages, with players on varied schedules and everyone all but locked in their hotel rooms, why wouldn’t its results match the bizarre nature of the entire event?
By its conclusion, it was outweighed only in its strangeness by just how badly it was needed.
After an autumn and winter spent grappling with the pandemic, America emerged that spring ready for a return to normal. Unorthodox as it was, it gave the country a road map back, thanks to the efforts of the association and its longtime civic partner.
“The NCAA and the city of Indianapolis did an amazing job pulling off the NCAA Tournament a time when we needed it,” Lloyd said, “not just the game of basketball, but our entire country, to be able to celebrate together.”
Zach Osterman is IndyStar's IU insider. Sign up for IndyStar's Hoosiers newsletter. Listen to Mind Your Banners, our IU Athletics-centric podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the latest on IndyStar TV: Hoosiers.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Indianapolis hosted 2021 NCAA Tournament during COVID-19 pandemic