NCAA vice president of men's basketball Dan Gavitt told AP they brainstormed ways to play an abbreviated NCAA tournament.

Organizers scrambled to devise a plan for a 16-team event over one long weekend.

"We did spend a significant amount of time very late Wednesday night trying to figure out alternative models," Gavitt said Friday.

Gavitt presented the idea to the men's basketball selection committee on Thursday. The games would be held at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, which is the city where the Final Four was scheduled to be held.

"Far from ideal. Far from perfect," Gavitt said. "Imperfect as it may be, that was one of the only reasonable options we thought we could at least maintain some level of our tournaments."

The decision was ultimately made to cancel the tournament altogether.