Add 20-30 players, a handful of coaches, gameday personnel and officials -- but not fans -- and you'll have basketball in Cousens Gym this weekend.  Photo for Bowdoin athletics by CIPhotography.com

Last week, Amherst and Johns Hopkins barred fans from attending first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in their gymnasiums. As this weekend opened, it appeared fans might get locked out even more places.

The roller-coaster ride of will they/won't they took quite a few turns on Wednesday. A school relented, and allowed parents in. The NCAA made a statement which will cause reverberations across divisions, and most of the sites hosting men's basketball this weekend are following that guidance.

On Thursday, the entire rest of the tournament was canceled, along with all NCAA championships, in all divisions, both winter and spring.

• More men's NCAA Tournament headlines
• More women's NCAA Tournament headlines
• D3sports.com: NESCAC cancels all spring championships

Before we got there, here's how things went down:

On Wednesday, Mark Emmert, president of the NCAA, issued the following statement: “The priority of NCAA championships is the health and well-being of student-athletes, team personnel, host communities and all who attend NCAA championship events. We rely on the host schools to determine their own safety and security protocol for events on their campus. The selection of hosts and assignment of teams to sites by the committee is based on the established championship policies and procedures. At this time, there has not been a decision to deviate from or change the policies and procedures, including host assignments, due to host sites prohibiting spectators.”

For the women's tournament, Amherst and Tufts were holding firm in barring all fans, even families of the players participating. However, Bowdoin changed its mind, and Wednesday announced that families of players were now welcome to attend the games between Oglethorpe and Whitman, and between Trine and Bowdoin.

As far as the men's tournament is concerned, Swarthmore is the only site to announce that it is locking out all fans.

Other schools chose to give players' families the ability to attend. Mount Union announced a slightly less restrictive policy for its game against Wittenberg. Brockport also announced a limited-attendance policy for its game against Tufts, as did St. John's for its game against St. Thomas, Christopher Newport against Hobart and Randolph-Macon vs. Yeshiva. Hope did the same for the women's sectional it is hosting. And hosts Elmhurst and North Central followed suit Thursday morning in announcing a limited-attendance policy.

In addition, the NCAA's statement makes it almost certain that the entire rest of the Division III NCAA Tournament will be conducted without fans present, but with families being allowed to attend.

The specific details for Fort Wayne and Columbus have yet to be announced as of this update. Stay tuned for more.