In less than 24 hours, the Big East Tournament has gone from a full go with spectators allowed to attend to being played behind closed doors to canceled completely. The Big East announced that it would be canceling the remainder of its conference tournament at halftime of the Creighton-St. John's quarterfinal game. The Big East was the final power conference to cancel its conference tournament, as the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, SEC and Pac 12 all canceled their respective tournaments before their teams tipped off on Thursday. "Following a call with our Presidents and Athletics Directors and additional consultation with the City of New York, the Big East conference has canceled the remainder of our men's basketball tournament, effective immediately," the Big East said in a statement. "We believe the decision is in the best interests of our participants and fans." Big East commissioner Val Ackerman originally said that the Big East Tournament would proceed as planned with spectators allowed on Wednesday afternoon. Before DePaul and Xavier could wrap up the final first-round game of the day, it was announced that Thursday's action would be played with limited access to fans. Seton Hall was slated to take on No. 6 seed Marquette in the final quarterfinal matchup of the day. Not only will that game not take place, but there is a chance Seton Hall has played its final game of the 2019-20 season. Seton Hall and the rest of the Big East now await word on the future of the NCAA Tournament, which is in serious jeopardy of being canceled or postponed. Tyler Calvaruso can be reached at tyler.calvaruso@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @tyler_calvaruso.
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