CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ There are few more appropriate illustrations of how the coronavirus has upended the sports world than this:
Devon Dotson _ the No. 1 scorer on college basketball's No. 1 team, in the middle of the sport's No. 1 month _ found himself inside a Charlotte grocery store Tuesday, marveling at the lack of toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
"It all feels like a bad dream," Dotson told me by phone when we talked later that day. "This was supposed to be our travel day, headed to the NCAA Tournament."
The whole season had been a good dream until the past week. Dotson was a first-team All-American this season for Kansas, scoring 18.1 points per game for a team that was the favorite to win the 2020 version of March Madness.
Instead, the NCAA men's basketball tournament is one of thousands of events that have been canceled. Dotson found out March 12 while eating and scrolling through his phone at a Freddy's restaurant in Lawrence, Kan.
"I saw the season end on Twitter," Dotson said. "So that was tough. Hard to describe the feeling _ just complete shock and disbelief."
Like so many colleges around the country, Kansas sent everyone home due to COVID-19 concerns and will finish its classes remotely this semester after an extended spring break for students. Dotson, the former star at Charlotte's Providence Day and a two-time Charlotte Observer Player of the Year, is bouncing off the walls in his hometown _ playing video games, watching reruns of old college basketball games on ESPN, hanging out with friends from high school and wondering what binge-worthy TV show might kill some time.
"It feels like I'm supposed to be playing basketball right now," Dotson said, "instead of just staying in the house and not doing anything. You go from a full-speed season to this? That's tough. But this is a worldwide problem and the virus needs to be controlled. It's way bigger than basketball at this point. I understand that. It's serious."
It's quite possible that Dotson, a sophomore, has played his final game for Kansas. He is projected as a late first-round NBA draft pick if he leaves early. Dotson flirted with doing so after his freshman season, declaring for the draft in 2019 but then withdrawing his name and returning to Kansas after it appeared he would be a second-round pick.
"This is all happening like about three or four weeks earlier than I thought," Dotson said. "So I haven't put my mind on what to do next. I'm still trying to recover from what just happened. But I'm going to talk to my family and decide about the NBA in the upcoming weeks."
Although Dotson remained completely neutral about any NBA-related questions, I'll be surprised if he stays at Kansas for a third season. He has NBA tools already _ he controls an offense beautifully and has an uncanny ability to play downhill and free himself for layups.
Dotson looked like a collegiate player in high school at Providence Day, which is why most everyone wanted him. He looked like an NBA player in college this season. His only downsides: At 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, he's a little smaller point guard than some teams would like, and his 3-point shot (30.9% this season) has to improve. He reminds me some of the way Kemba Walker played coming out of Connecticut in 2011.
Walker won an NCAA title that year; Dotson won't get that chance.
And man, Kansas was great this season _ 28-3, on a 16-game winning streak, boasting a second All-American in Udoka Azubuike. Dotson agrees with his head coach Bill Self that Kansas should eventually raise some sort of No. 1 banner to commemorate this season (the Jayhawks were ranked No. 1 in the final AP poll), but he wanted to win the championship on the court.
"Kansas hadn't won the national title since 2008," Dotson said. "But we had all the pieces on this team, and the right chemistry, too. We were going to do something really special, I thought. And now we'll never know."
