Final Four coaches explain how Indy delivered COVID bubble tournament when country 'needed it'
Several coaches who returned for the 2026 Final Four remember a forgivable tournament held in Indy five years prior, when fans were masked and distant.
INDIANAPOLIS — The last time Indianapolis hosted the Final Four , Brad Underwood barely saw the sunshine. Underwood’s Illinois team was a No. 1 seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament , played entirely within the state of Indiana — and mostly Indianapolis — due to COVID-19 protocols.
As the nation began emerging from the yearlong pandemic, college basketball bubbled itself up in Indy to crown a national champion. One of the few creature comforts organizers could allow teams was the chance to stretch collective legs (while socially distancing) at Victory Field, the home of the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians . For the most part isolated in their hotel rooms and meeting areas, players and coaches could at least breathe in some fresh air when allowed out onto the turf.
“We got let loose in the yard,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said, smiling. “All the teams were circling each other. ” Illinois never got that chance.
“The day we were supposed to go out on the baseball field,” Underwood explained, “it rained. ” Five years later, the Final Four is back in Indianapolis, this time under more familiar conditions. For the three head coaches here who worked through the challenges of 2021, and coached in that tournament, returning triggers memories of living through the last breathes of a season no one had ever seen before, and no one ever wants to see again.
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