Would NCAA Have Done the Right Thing?

After Hank Gathers’ death, the (West Coast Conference) officials made a commendable decision when they canceled the remainder of the tournament. It wasn’t really a hard decision, since Loyola was the class of the league and the cancellation didn’t present a financial crisis to the WCC.

However, what if Gathers had collapsed and died in the middle of the Final Four? Would the tournament officials have made the same decision then, or would the almighty dollar and the American obsession to crown a champion have overruled common sense?

I think the latter would have occurred, and worst of all, we would have had to endure the cliche justification that “Hank would have wanted us to go on.”

JON STEINBERG, Torrance