Josh Williams knew, but he didn’t want it to be true.

On Tuesday, the redshirt senior guard led Robert Morris to win the Northeast Conference tournament championship and earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

When the NBA shut down its season Wednesday night, Williams realized he wouldn’t get to play in the NCAA Tournament because there wouldn’t be an NCAA Tournament. By Thursday, it was canceled because of the coronavirus global pandemic that completely shut down our sports world.

“Immediately, I thought, ‘Well there it goes,’ ” Williams said by phone Saturday from his on-campus apartment. “I didn’t want it to be true. When I found out it was true, I kind of shut down. I didn’t do any school work. I didn’t answer any phone calls or text messages. I just didn’t want to believe it.”

Unlike most college basketball teams, Robert Morris got to play in and win their conference tournament. The Colonials received their NCAA berth the old-fashioned way. The best consolation, however, is of little consolation to Williams.

“I know we deserve to be in the tournament, so that helps out,” said Williams, 23, of Akron, who is working toward a master’s degree in organizational leadership. “You still want that opportunity to play in the tournament. That’s something you dream about as a kid. I know I’ll never get to play in it, which sucks, but knowing that I deserve to be in it helps.”

What doesn’t help is the absence of a Selection Sunday show on CBS to announce to the rest of the country that Robert Morris is in the field of 68, to confirm to Williams that he helped put the Colonials back on the map. College coaches were pushing for it to at least be the one show that could have gone on.

But that’s not what saddens Williams.

“I made peace with Selection Sunday,” he said. “It’s not being able to play in the tournament that still bothers me.”

Especially not playing one more game with his younger brother, Jon, a junior point guard for the Colonials. They are roommates who are going through every step of this together, and Jon has tried to distract Josh through music and comedians and cooking.

The Williams brothers come from a spiritual family, so they have prayed on it together. They bring perspective to puzzling times in counting both their sorrows and their blessings.

“It’s devastating,” Jon Williams said. “We did something special together, as far as winning the NEC championship. We wanted to have the experience of playing in the NCAA Tournament together. We wanted to have a chance at being a Cinderella team. It’s been hard, realizing that we won’t play together, especially on that stage.”

The Colonials wanted to see if their glass slippers fit the Cinderella story.

Instead, they canceled the ball.

What gives Josh Williams some solace is that his family was there for his one, shining moment. He had lost twice in the Mid-American Conference championship game at Akron before transferring to Robert Morris, so he made the most of his last chance to go to the Big Dance.

Josh Williams sank 5 of 11 shots from the floor, including four 3-pointers, and scored eight of his 17 points in the final six minutes of Robert Morris’ 77-67 victory over St. Francis (Pa.) in the NEC final at UPMC Events Center.

The standing-room-only crowd gave Josh Williams a standing ovation upon exiting the game with one minute left. When the final buzzer sounded, he celebrated at center court with his teammates, climbed the ladder to snip off a loop of the net and swung it wildly in jubilation.

“It was probably one of the highest highs. Not probably — it was one of the highest highs I’ve had in my career,” Josh Williams said. “I’ve been in however many championship games and not get it done, so to see the time wind down and get it done and be able to celebrate with my family right away, it was probably the most memorable thing I’ve done in my career.”

Then Josh ran to celebrate with his family, seated in the first row of bleachers behind the basket near the home bench. The first person he hugged was his brother, Jerry, older by two years. They have a strong bond, as Josh credits Jerry for cultivating his competitive streak by always wanting to beat his big brother.

When Jerry was playing football at West Virginia State, they suffered injuries at the same time. As Josh later learned from his mother, Jerry prayed that if one of them couldn’t play again, he wanted it to be him instead of Josh. Before every game, Jerry signs Josh’s shoes and Josh gives the signature a kiss.

“It was a surreal moment,” Jerry said after the game. “It’s everything we prepared for and sacrificed as a family. To cap it off with a championship was priceless.”

When the NCAA announced its tournament was canceled, Josh Williams posted photos of himself hugging the NEC gold ball trophy and celebrating with his Robert Morris teammates and family on Instagram with this caption: “Dear basketball, Not yet, wanna dance one last time!”

To not be able play in the NCAA tourney seems cruel, but we are dealing with a health crisis. The risks outweigh the rewards, hard as it is for young, healthy athletes to comprehend.

There is no consolation, not even this one offered by a Robert Morris basketball staffer to the departing seniors: How often do you get to play the last game of your career and end on a win?

“For me, not really,” Josh Williams said. “Probably down the road, I’ll get to say I won my last game as a college athlete. Right now, that’s not really something I want to hear.”

That’s not really something Josh Williams wants to be true, especially when he knows Robert Morris deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament that never was.

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