The NCAA Tournament has been canceled amid an outbreak of COVID-19, ending the men’s basketball postseason before it ever really got started.

Now, as people practice social distancing, there’s time to reflect on what could have been this March.

With what would have been Selection Sunday coming up this weekend, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said recently that he still thinks the NCAA should release a tournament bracket. His reasoning? It’s about rewarding players and schools for what they accomplished this season (via 247Sports):

“We’d celebrate Rutgers, Penn State and Dayton as a 1 seed” in the NCAA Tournament, Pearl told Auburn Undercover.  “It’s not perfect but why not go ahead an reward the teams that have earned the right to play for a national championship? It’s a benchmark for everybody.

“I’m big on history and we’re big on trying to make history. The biggest disappointment for our kids is they’re not going to get a chance to make some more of it. And they’ve been consistent with that. This is not like something that is all of a sudden new to them.

“It matters to Austin Wiley what was accomplished here and what else potentially could have been accomplished. With that all said, our kids have a very healthy perspective — as best as we can understand it with where the world is right now and we understand what’s important and not important. At the same time I think these kids should be recognized for what they accomplished and to be able to say for only the second time in school history they were able to make it (to the NCAA Tournament) 3 straight years is significant.”

Selection Sunday was originally set for March 15. We’ll see if the NCAA Selection Committee still does something, or if the bracket is just canceled this year like the tournament.