KC Roos women’s basketball awarded automatic NCAA berth before tournament is canceled

The Kansas City Roos women’s basketball team was awarded the Western Athletic Conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid on Thursday after the league canceled its postseason tournaments.

But later Thursday, the NCAA canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships, meaining the Roos won’t get the chance to participate in March Madness for the first time in school history.

The Roos are still the first UMKC basketball team to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, however. They won the WAC regular season title and improved to 21-10 after beating Chicago State in a WAC quarterfinal on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

But the WAC announced Thursday the men’s and women’s tournaments would be canceled because of concern about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The Roos men were scheduled to play their first game in the tournament on Thursday. Their season ends at 16-14.

“This decision has been made based upon new information, including the recommendation of the NCAA’s COVID-19 advisory panel,” read a statement from the WAC. “Per the WAC Codebook, the conference’s automatic qualifiers to the 2020 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments will be the regular season champions, which are New Mexico State University for the men and University of Missouri-Kansas City for the women.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 1:39 PM.