Sunday was supposed to be a day of celebration for Lamar Stevens and his Penn State Nittany Lion teammates. Regardless of their finish in the Big Ten tournament, originally scheduled to wrap up this weekend, they were heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine years.

That dream never became reality. In a crushing blow to all college basketball players with an opportunity to play in the Big Dance, but especially for someone like Stevens, who returned for his senior season and was seven points away from becoming the program's all-time leading scorer, the NCAA canceled the men's and women's tournaments due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“I was really hurt," Stevens said on Jeff Goodman's podcast "Good and Plenty" recently. "Being a senior, being a guy who hasn’t made the tournament in the previous three years and knowing that it was coming to reality this year – not having any control over it, being seven points away from becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer, my heart broke, honestly.

“I feel like I gave everything to this school and this program to get to that point and I wanted to experience that with my team and my coaches, and have that Penn State community rally around us while we finally made the tournament.”

The Nittany Lions had just landed in Indianapolis and were preparing for their first Big Ten tournament matchup when they first heard rumblings about the tourney being canceled. They were in their practice facility's locker room when the word became official.

“We just weren’t ready for it to end. It’s one thing to lose on the court," Stevens told Goodman. "To not even have the opportunity to play with each other again so abruptly, we weren’t ready for that. It was an emotional scene.”

The group did its best to hold back tears, but those began flowing quickly, Stevens said.

Stevens said he wishes the NCAA had merely postponed the tournament, then given teams a questionnaire to figure out the best path forward, but he acknowledged the logistical challenges that solution presents.

He also wishes the NCAA had plowed forward with its Selection Show, just for the moment to hear Penn State’s name on TV and the logo to pop up in a region.

"It's the least they could do," he said.