After their team bus crashed on the way to a game against Boston University last week, the University of Maine has decided to withdraw its women's basketball team from this week's America East basketball championships.

Maine, who was the tournament's eighth seed, cited the best interest of the athletes in making the decision, according to statements from school officials.

As a result of the decision, the tournament's top seeded UAlbany Great Danes will receive a bye to the tournament's semifinal round, where they will play the winner of the quarterfinal game between fourth seeded Stony Brook and fifth seeded New Hampshire.

Obviously, living and working in the Albany area and being an alumnus of UAlbany, I am hoping that the Great Danes can win the tournament en route to another NCAA Tournament berth but, and I'm sure everyone can agree with me on this, things such as basketball seem unimportant when compared to the well being of the people playing it. Kudos to Maine for making a difficult, yet appropriate in many ways, decision that certainly wasn't easy.

A portion of already purchased all-session passes will be refunded as well as tickets for the session this game fell into but, again, that doesn't seem very important in the context of the story.

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