This trip was odd from the very beginning. Even before my flight left Tallahassee early Wednesday morning.

Making my way back to seat 21D, I passed a woman standing in front of her aisle with a cleaning wipe clenched in her right hand. Vigorously, she wiped down every inch of her seat before sliding into it.

Had never seen that before.

Our flight was headed for Charlotte, N.C., and usually on these morning trips, people are eager to get settled in and close their eyes for a little rest before beginning their day in a new city. Instead, most everyone seemed alert, with nervous glances coming from otherwise pleasant-looking strangers.

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For a moment, I was taken back in time. To nearly 20 years ago, when we boarded flights soon after 9/11.

Back then, you could feel the anxiety on planes as travelers sized each other up:

Could this person be a terrorist? Could that one?

This time, the looks seemed almost as accusatory:

Could this person be infected with coronavirus? Could that one?

After landing in Charlotte, there were more signs of this new reality, or surreality. A young man walked past me wearing a medical mask. Then I encountered a woman wearing a mask about two minutes later.

I couldn't help but wonder if everyone was overreacting.

Of course, it wasn't until I made the drive from Charlotte to Greensboro, N.C., that I really got a sense for how different our world would become.

Shortly after arriving at the Greensboro Coliseum, we got word that fans would not be allowed to attend next week's NCAA Tournament games. In the moment, that seemed inconceivable. March Madness without fans? No way!

My first thoughts, of course, went to my many friends who are Florida State fans and were so looking forward to watching Leonard Hamilton's team next week in Tampa. After all these years of being sent across the country for the postseason, the Seminoles would likely be a No. 2 seed and have the clout to stay home for the first two rounds.

In an instant, that experience was taken away.

Then just a few hours later, the ACC would follow suit. Sort of.

Instead of putting its new policy into effect immediately, the conference decided to let fans take in the final two games of Wednesday's evening session before shutting them out going forward.

Outside the arena, we saw a lone ticket scalper still trying to make a few bucks. He apparently hadn't gotten the memo. There was confusion inside the arena as well, as the schools' pep bands and dance teams first were told that they wouldn't be allowed to perform during the rest of the tournament. Then that decision was reversed, bringing temporary joy to those groups.

As strange as things had been up until that point, however, it was absolutely nothing compared to what we were about to experience over the next 12 hours.

At some point during the first half of North Carolina's game against Syracuse -- the ACC's final game Wednesday night -- reports surfaced that Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the coronavirus. Within minutes of hearing that news and seeing that bizarre video of Gobert touching a group of reporters' tape recorders and microphones at a press conference, the NBA suspended its season.

In an instant, everything changed.

Up until that moment, it was difficult to imagine any major sporting events being canceled or postponed. There was too much money at stake, we all figured. And who knew if it would even be necessary? But once the NBA took such drastic action -- if professional basketball could be shuttered in an instant -- then suddenly everything else was on the table, too.

That was around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The next two hours were a complete blur.

There was the video of Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg falling ill on the bench during the Cornuskers' Big Ten tournament game. Then news that actor Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson had tested positive for coronavirus in Australia.

Somewhere in between, the White House announced limits on travel to Europe and other precautions. For the first time, what once seemed so unlikely -- shutting down college basketball and other sports seasons -- now seemed almost probable.

After a few hours' reprieve while the country slept Wednesday night, there would be a series of even stranger turns Thursday morning.

First, the ACC announced Commissioner John Swofford would address the media at 10 a.m. to discuss plans for the tournament. He then scooped that event by going on the ACC Network's "Packer and Durham" show to proclaim that the tournament would be played as scheduled.

That seemed extremely unlikely based on how things were trending the night before, but Swofford defended the decision during his press conference and said that the major college conferences were unified in the desire to keep playing. He admitted there was risk involved with the decision and added that the things could change at any time, but he seemed determined to move forward with the event.

As Swofford wrapped up his media session, FSU's and Clemson's players already were on the Greensboro Coliseum court getting prepared for a 12:30 p.m. tip. There were no fans in the stands, but arena employees were using spray bottles and rags to clean seats and handrails for the limited number of spectators expected to attend. (Each school was permitted to invite 150 family members and close friends).

Even as the players went through their pregame routines, it never really felt like the game would be played. Maybe it was the empty stands. Perhaps it was the constant stream of news coming from seemingly every corner of the sports world.

A second Utah Jazz player had tested positive for coronavirus. Major League Soccer suspended its season for a month. The American Athletic Conference announced it was canceling its basketball tournament. Then the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference did the same.

This was all happening within a span of minutes, and yet nothing was being announced by the ACC. To the contrary, at 11:44 a.m., the conference's social media team posted a graphic on Twitter with the message, "We're hooping today," while players from both teams got last-minute pointers from coaches in their locker rooms.

Meanwhile, FSU's pep band, The Seminole Sound, was playing in one corner of the Coliseum while Clemson's band was playing in the other. The contrast of the groups' up-tempo, get-fired-up tunes with the somber news that was coming across everybody's timeline somehow created a more uneasy feeling.

Is all of this really happening right now?

Then, with 31 minutes on the game clock, a buzzer from the scorers' table alerted the teams that they had one minute remaining before they could return to the court for pregame warmups.

And heeeeeeeere came the Seminoles!

Like they had 31 times this season, Trent Forrest, Devin Vassell and company jogged out onto the court and started working up a sweat for the game about to be played.

Selfishly, I felt honored to be there sitting courtside. I hated that the fans were being shut out, but I have enjoyed watching this team as much as any I've covered in nearly 30 years of doing this. I was excited to share their postseason journey with our readers.

But as each second passed, it seemed less and less likely that this was going to happen. Clemson's players never took the court again for warmups, instead remaining in their locker room as more college conferences pulled the plug on their basketball tournaments.

And then about eight minutes after they ran out, FSU's players were gathered on the court by strength coach Mike Bradley and told to head back into the locker room. Swofford and FSU athletics director David Coburn had just broken the news to Hamilton and his staff, and now they had to share it with their players.

The ACC Tournament was over before it really started.

"They were disappointed when I told them that it had been canceled," Hamilton explained later, "but I challenged them to be mature and understand the challenges of what's going on in the world and that they had to be patient with the process."

Because they would end up being the only ACC champion for this season, the Seminoles were told they would receive the tournament trophy to go along with the regular-season trophy they had received the previous Saturday. Both teams then came back out onto the court for one of the strangest trophy ceremonies you'll ever see.

A few of the Seminoles' players tried to force smiles for photographs. Others looked confused or solemn. Clemson's players and coaches stood about 30 or 40 feet away and applauded. (Good on them for having the class to do that.)

As the ceremony ended, an FSU official standing next to me uttered a sentence I won't soon forget:

"It had to happen this year?"

Leonard Hamilton has been a head coach for more than 30 years years and is currently enjoying perhaps the best run of his career. The Seminoles made the Round of 32 three years ago, the Elite Eight in 2018 and then the Sweet 16 last year.

This current squad finished the regular season with a No. 4 national ranking.

A No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament was all but guaranteed. A No. 1 seed seemed possible with a strong run through the ACC tourney.

And a feeling had been brewing inside the program for weeks that this could be the team. Because of their talent, depth, unselfish spirit, toughness and resilience, this could be the team that delivered FSU its first national championship in men's basketball. The one that provided the crowning glory for Hamilton's career.

Less than four hours later, it would all be gone.

On the heels of the NHL and Major League Baseball putting their seasons on hold, the NCAA announced shortly after 4 p.m., that it was canceling the men's and women's basketball tournaments and all championship events for the 2020 winter and spring seasons.

In the span of about 24 hours, we went from no changes to no fans to no games.

Before the night was over, I was at the Greensboro airport returning my rental car with hopes of flying back to Tallahassee. A lady in front of me carried a clear, plastic bag. Inside of it were Lysol disinfecting wipes and a spray cleaning bottle.

What seemed like an overreaction just one day earlier now seemed almost normal.

Could this really be our new reality?

From talking to sources within the FSU athletics department, the NCAA's decision to cancel championships on Thursday was completely unexpected. Administrators and coaches in all sports expected there would be some postponements. And they knew there would be challenges when it came to schedules and facilities and logistics.

But nobody expected the plug to be pulled on the postseason of every college sport.

As of late Thursday, some coaches were still holding out hope that things could change. That even if the NCAA wouldn't reverse its decision, then maybe the conferences could resume play down the line and at least hold conference tournaments.

It seems improbable.

At the same time, we all just learned how much could change in the span of 24 hours.

The truth right now is that none of us knows exactly where any of this will go.

Unfortunately, for one of the greatest men's basketball teams in FSU history, we now know where it ends.

Contact managing editor Ira Schoffel at ira@warchant.com and follow @IraSchoffel on Twitter.

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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council