If there was a weekend to start getting fans excited about March Madness, last week was a good one. There was the Duke-Carolina game that lived up to its hype and a 31-point game from St. Bonaventure sophomore guard Jaylen Adams to lead his team to an upset over No. 13 Dayton.

And then on Saturday came a hard-fought game between Duke and Louisville that seemed to be going the Blue Devils’ way until the Cardinals found a way to get into their heads and outfight them for a 71-64 win in Louisville. It was a great game — one of those that reminds everyone why college basketball can be so great. But if you look at the game in the greater circumstances of Louisville’s season, it was also one of the games that reminds us all why college basketball can at times be so difficult to stomach.

Illinois never trailed in defeating Duke 83-68 in Tuesday’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The visitors jumped on a shaky Duke team early and never let Duke back in the game. — The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Friday the Duke at Florida State men’s basketball game has been postponed. The game was scheduled to be played Saturday. Officials say the postponement follows a positive test, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing with the Florida State men’s basketball program.

Much of the effort for Louisville came from senior Damion Lee who dislocated his finger in pregame warm-ups, had a trainer pop it back and walked away with 24 points. Sure, it was his one of his last home games. But when you look at what happened to Louisville earlier this month, it was easy to wonder: For what?

As much effort as the Cardinals players put into the games, as many late-game fouls they draw, as many scrums they dove into on the floor for and as many dislocated fingers they put back into place, the only reward these players will get is being able to walk out of the gym with their pride. And maybe a boost in their NBA draft status.

It’s even more infuriating when you remember why they aren’t going to the tournament. It’s not because they had a slow start to the season, it’s not because they can’t get their grades up, or that they did anything wrong. It’s because a former assistant coach allegedly paid prostitutes to entertain recruits at the university instead of being able to sell them on the chance to play for one of the best (at least on the court) coaches to ever coach the game. It’s because they play for a head coach who pleaded ignorance to the whole thing, meaning he didn’t live up to the promises he made to the mothers and fathers he told that he would take care of their sons.

It’s because of a university that chose to be too scared to face the consequences from the NCAA for its coaches’ actions than to see what the governing body will do and equally glaringly, an NCAA whose punitive system never really managed to get to the actual villains in college basketball.

For all of those reasons, Lee and his team won’t be playing in the big dance. Remembering that is a good way to ruin a completely enjoyable Saturday.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Louisville’s final regular season home game was against Duke.

Duke Louisville Game Injury Video

Something awe-inspiring but rather strange happened over the holiday weekend at Duke. The Blue Devil women’s basketball players decided they were done listening to the big-time college sports leaders who want student-athletes to keep playing sports during the pandemic. They were done acting as guinea pigs. They were done serving as our unpaid COVID-19 entertainment.

They were done.

Duke’s chief communications officer, not an athletic department spokesperson, announced the decision in a Christmas Day statement.

What Happened At The Duke Louisville Game Injury Backup Type To Go

'The student-athletes on the Duke women’s basketball team have made the difficult decision to conclude their current season due to safety concerns,” said Michael Schoenfeld, who also is the school’s vice president for public affairs and government relations. “We support their decision, as we have supported the choices made by all student-athletes at Duke during this unprecedented time. Duke will maintain our current schedule of competition in other sports and will continue to observe our rigorous health and safety protocols, which include daily testing for all student-athletes and are based on guidance from leading medical experts.”

What Happened At The Duke Louisville Game Injury Backup Type To Print

That’s all well and good, but the only person anyone really wanted to hear from that day, or in the days that have followed, is the head coach, Kara Lawson. She’s not just any old coach. Lawson is a rock star, an Olympic gold medalist, former WNBA all-star and ESPN and Washington Wizards analyst who was an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics before returning to the women’s game this year to coach Duke.

On December 9, after a 73-49 loss to Louisville, she said, “I don’t think we should be playing right now.”

She hasn’t said a word publicly since. In fact, she has disappeared completely from view. Her cell phone doesn’t ring; rather, a recording announces: “The person you are trying to reach is not accepting calls at this time. Please try your call again later.”

This is weird. Lawson, who has been a member of the media for years, is off the grid at the exact moment we would most like to hear what she has to say. Word at Duke is she might be with family, while school officials have nothing else to say on the record about any of this.

We know they “support” the players’ decision. So why not hold a news conference to say how proud they are of their student-athletes for taking matters into their own hands? Why not produce Lawson as a shining example of a coach doing the right thing by her players? And why not produce the student-athletes themselves, who did what we can only imagine so many other beleaguered and isolated athletes would love to do and end this ridiculous charade of trying to play their sport during the pandemic?

Perhaps Duke doesn’t want to ruffle any ACC feathers as the rest of the league plays on. Perhaps Duke doesn’t want to be, well, Duke, so the less attention on their student-athletes’ intelligent decision the better. But in taking control of their lives, and their health, and their responsibility to their community, these athletes should be celebrated. Instead, there is only silence.

It turns out that the Louisville game was the last one Duke played, finishing with a 3-1 record. Two days later, Louisville announced it was pausing team activities because of positive COVID tests. The next day, the ACC postponed Duke’s game with Miami because the Blue Devils were going through contact tracing procedures after playing Louisville. Four days later, on Dec. 16, Duke paused team activities when two staff members tested positive, and one of the players later tested positive as well, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

Duke’s players began requesting that the entire ACC start daily COVID testing, just as Duke does, but the ACC’s Medical Advisory Group calls for basketball teams to be tested just three days a week.

Since the decision to end the season, information has been scarce and sporadic. The mother of a Duke player told Raleigh-Durham television station WTVD that she’s proud of what the team did.

'When they were talking to me about COVID they were talking about a social responsibility for your country, for other players,' said Michelle Goodchild, the mother of junior guard Miela Goodchild. 'They aren't just looking at the student-athletes. They've got a bigger vision. They're looking at how to protect Durham, the greater Duke community and beyond.”

Meanwhile, Duke senior center Jade Williams took on critics of her team’s decision on Twitter.

“I’m amazed at people,” she wrote. “To clarify…we together as a team, decided to opt out of our season. We are in a pandemic STILL because not enough people are taking it serious. Basketball players are not just entertainment. There shouldn’t be casual attitudes about COVID now a year in.”

One would hope that big-time college sports officials would have the courage to say such things. Since they don’t, we’re fortunate to have the 18-to-22-year-olds to do it for them.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Duke women's basketball players do the right thing by canceling season