After leaving a meeting Friday, Charlie Buscaglia walked outside to get in his car. The only important moment left in his day was to go home.

What he encountered in the Friday sunlight wasn’t the Robert Morris campus he has known for the past 17 years.

“Campus is really barren,” the Colonials women’s basketball coach said. “Things are still here, as far as resources, but as far as students, student life, it’s a ghost town.”

After in-person classes and all extracurricular activities were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Moon campus was still functioning, with administrators and tutors on the job. But most students had gone home where they would attend classes behind a computer screen for the remainder of the semester.

Best-case scenario, Buscaglia would have been preparing his top-seeded team for Sunday’s Northeast Conference Tournament championship game at home (if he had won a semifinal Thursday, also at home). But both games were canceled, ending the men’s and women’s basketball teams’ seasons short of an NCAA Tournament appearance and halting spring sports before the start of all-important conference play.

Buscaglia was recovering from what he called “one roller-coaster ride after another” Thursday when the NCAA Tournament was cancelled.

“We went from feeling weird (not knowing if the semifinal game would be played) to feeling joyful (when games were canceled and RMU was automatically awarded the NCAA berth) to two hours later, the tournament’s over,” he said.

“We’re picking ourselves up and being grateful for what we have,” he said.

How did his young women take the news?

“I’m always teaching them about adversity,” Buscaglia said. “That’s a big part of my life and the reason I’m in Division-I college basketball.

“We’re trained to understand how adversity hits and how we need to handle it. We teach not to get selfish when things get difficult.”

The unique issue with Buscaglia’s team is half the roster is made up of international players.

With the ban on travel from Europe, some players might be fearful if they go home, they would be unable to return in time for the summer semester.

While Buscaglia ties up the normal logistical details inherent to the end of the season, his office door is open to any player who wants to talk.

“I know they’re going through a lot,” he said. “We have to be here for them. They need guidance. They need leadership.”

And some disappointed student-athletes might even need a shoulder for support.

When the cancellations were announced Thursday, Robert Morris softball coach Jexx Varner encountered sad faces, bowed heads and tears among his players.

“I would be worried if they were not emotional,” he said. “We had girls crying in our meeting. I think pretty much all of them were.”

Varner understands the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic and why the cancellations were necessary. Yet, like Buscaglia, he knows the way his players respond will best define their collegiate careers.

“We all have a lot of things we are working on,” Varner said. “The academic side of it isn’t going anywhere. We don’t want to throw things away just because of this situation.”

He said the team met as a group twice Thursday and plan further gatherings going forward.

“I’m proud of them being there for each other,” Varner said, “and I don’t expect that to change at all over the next couple months.”

But the reality is his team’s season is likely over after compiling an 8-11 record since February while traveling through North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. The opportunity to win the real prize — the NEC championship — is gone.

He was concerned for his five seniors, including Brianna Bunner of Southmoreland, who, apparently, played their last collegiate softball game in an unfinished season.

But he received good news from the NCAA on Friday afternoon when the Division I Council Coordination Committee offered “eligibility relief” for athletes in spring sports.

The details need to be worked out, possibly including adjusted scholarship limits with seniors staying and freshmen entering next school year.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma told ESPN that NCAA should “foot the bill for that.”

“It’s an unprecedented event, so you have to take unprecedented measures,” Auriemma said.

Before the NCAA’s announcement, Varner said, “I’m going to go up there on the mountain, shouting and going to bat for them that we find a way to provide another year of eligibility and redshirts for this season.

“This isn’t the way it should end.”

Later, he said, “It’s comforting to know that the NCAA has recognized that and has started the conversation.”

Division I Council Coordination Committee agrees eligibility relief is appropriate for spring sports: pic.twitter.com/u7hwYOyTDV

— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) March 13, 2020

But the immediate situation — the loss of this season — remains.

“We put in a lot of work from January on,” Varner said. “We were growing and ready for the next steps.”

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