Mike Krzyzewski believes the financial consequences of canceling the 2021 NCAA Tournament will be dire for collegiate amateur athletics.

"We're the thing that the NCAA is most concerned about because men's college basketball and the tournament pays for something like ... it produces 98% or more of the money for the NCAA," Krzyzewski said on Tuesday's edition of Keyshawn, JWIll & Zubin on ESPN Radio. "We need to have the tournament. We can't have it where two years in a row you don't have the NCAA tournament."

Per the NCAA's public audit, the group generated more than $867 million off the 2019 NCAA tournament. While Power 5 programs generate most of their revenue from football, the bulk of college basketball's 353 programs are in leagues that don't have access to that financial pipeline, which increases the value of the NCAA tournament.

Krzyzewski believes the NCAA must host a tournament in 2021, even if it doesn't start in March.

"I think that's where you should start," Krzyzewski said on ESPN Radio. "Make sure you have the tournament. It doesn't make any difference when it is. Because we don't even know when the NBA season is going to be next year. And we should look at them to see how they navigate the waters going forward. They've navigated them really well with the bubble."