Amid growing concern about the COVID-19 pandemic, the Western Athletic Conference on Thursday canceled its basketball tournaments.

"This decision has been made based upon new information, including the recommendation of the NCAA's COVID-19 advisory panel," according to a statement released by the conference.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley announced Thursday that basketball players, cheerleaders, the dance squad, the band and administrators plan to leave Las Vegas on Thursday and return to the Valley.

"Due to the cancellation of the tournament, the automatic qualifiers into the NCAA Tournaments are given to the regular season champions – New Mexico State for men’s basketball and Kansas City for women’s basketball," according to a news release from UTRGV.