Around the time Auburn was supposed to be leaving its hotel in Nashville on Friday, en route to Bridgestone Arena for its SEC quarterfinals matchup, Bruce Pearl will meet with his team about the future.

The Tigers' head coach, whose sixth season on the Plains was abruptly cut short, will zero in on one overarching question that every college basketball team across America faces this week.

"What's next?" Pearl said Thursday on ESPN's SportsCenter. "What does the rest of this semester look like?"

The 2019-20 Auburn basketball team was 25-6, finishing second in the SEC. Pearl thought the Tigers had all the tools to make another run in Nashville. With the way they ended the season with a monster win at Tennessee, there was no telling where momentum could have taken them in March.

That's a big "what-if" that every team across the country is having to cope with right now.

"We were hoping we could play for another couple championships," Pearl said. "Obviously the student-athletes were disappointed."

A day after ruling that March Madness would be played without fans in attendance, the NCAA announced Thursday that the entire ordeal would be canceled — along with all other spring and winter championships, due to the ongoing threat of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the United States.

No national champion will be crowned in men's basketball for the first time since 1938.

Like many coaches right now, Pearl said he had hoped for a postponement of March Madness rather than an outright cancellation, but he understands the NCAA gathered all necessary information from its COVID-19 committee before coming to a decision.

"I don't have all the facts," Pearl said.

Before that news, the dominoes were violently falling earlier in the day. Pearl said that he told his team on the bus on the way back from the arena that the SEC Tournament was set to be canceled. The responses were of anger, sadness and tears, he said.

Pearl said it was a "surreal" feeling in Nashville on Thursday morning. Everyone involved with the tournament could tell something wasn't right, and could sense that something had to be done after two NBA players had tested positive for the virus in the last 14 hours. Surely these kids weren't about to play basketball, especially after Auburn players left their morning practice wearing medical gloves.

"There was so much else going on outside the building in the morning that it seemed like what we were doing in there may not have been as important as it was at other times in their careers," Pearl said.

In spite of that, Pearl said the Tigers weren't apprehensive about playing. His team was ready to compete if they had been asked to. Anfernee McLemore, Austin Wiley, Danjel Purifoy, Samir Doughty and J'Von McCormick, who make up the winningest senior class in program history, weren't ready to see their Auburn careers dashed away.

Now, Pearl said he'll make sure to get his players moving in the right direction as it relates to their individual situations. He said the team will remain in Auburn at least for now as the university moves to online courses until at least April 10.

For the draft-ready players, Auburn's coaches will do everything they can to help them prepare adequately for meetings, combines and more. For the seniors, Pearl will make sure they are transitioning well to their classes and are set to graduate on time. For the returning players, it'll be about next season.

But most of all, Pearl said his No. 1 focus is to keep his Tigers healthy and safe.

"Our season is over," Pearl said. "We were 25-6. We finished second in this league. We probably would have been a 4- or 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament. But our time together is up. Now it's about you. It's about each one of those individuals, and where do we go from here."

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