Friday, the quarterfinal for basketball at Missouri Valley Conference between Drake and Northern Iowa was canceled, the league announced.
Drake, who is currently bubbling for the NCAA Tournament, automatically advanced to the semifinals in St. Louis.
The league tweeted its announcement, saying an official statement was coming but gave no reason for the cancellation. Stadium reported that it was due to a COVID-19 problem within the Northern Iowa program.
This is especially noticeable due to Drake’s status on the bubble. The Bulldogs, the second seed in the conference tournament, entered Friday as one of the “Last Four Byes” in Joe Lunardi’s last series, with the ESPN analyst saying Drake should win Friday’s quarterfinals and probably Saturday’s semifinals to enter. the at- te remains great discussion.
The Bulldogs tackle the winner of the Missouri State-Valparaiso in a semifinal on Saturday.
This was the second conference tournament forfeited this week; Holy Cross was forced to bow out of the Patriot League tournament due to COVID issues, which enabled Loyola Maryland to go through. Jacksonville and Charleston Southern also had to miss their conference tournaments due to COVID issues.