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The sound was difficult to interpret. Mostly, it sounded like phone static. Then, it sounded like Joe Mihalich again.

“Excuse me, I’m sorry,” the Hofstra basketball coach said. “I’m just choked up.”

That was just a couple of hours after the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament.

It had been less than two days since Hofstra secured its first ticket to March Madness in 19 years. It had been 13 years since the 63-year-old Mihalich had been to the Big Dance as coach of Niagara. It had come following a pair of heartbreaking conference title game losses since 2016, which left the Pride one win shy of heaven.

Mihalich remained composed discussing his frustration, confusion and disappointment. Then, talk turned to his seniors and his voice began trembling.

Mihalich thought of Desure Buie, the team’s undersized fifth-year guard and leading scorer. The first in his family to graduate college and the father to daughter Jada, Buie has exceeded all expectations on the court and in the classroom. The coach thought of Eli Pemberton, the four-year starter who appeared in the second-most games (128) in school history and is the school’s ninth all-time leading scorer. The guard shed tears when Mihalich called him Thursday afternoon, knowing their shared dream was over.

“Those kids, if anyone deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament, it’s Desure Buie and Elijah Pemberton and they’re not gonna get to do it. Ugh,” Mihalich said. “It’s a tough thing to deal with. But we have no choice. We’re gonna deal with this. Part of life is dealing with setbacks and disappointment and bad breaks, but we feel like we got robbed of something we earned and something we deserved.”

Pemberton was driving when a “ding” stole his attention, he said. He looked down at his phone, read the devastating alert and pulled over, as he attempted to process the shock.

“As happy as we were, we got shot down that fast. Other than my grandmother passing away and some of my friends passing away, it might be one of the hardest days of my life,” Pemberton said. “I don’t know how to explain this feeling. I just feel like I’ve been stabbed in the heart. Every time I think about Long Island, I start choking up. I just feel so bad for Long Island. They deserved this after 19 years. This was everything to me and my team.”

Even with the rapid succession of cancellations, suspensions and postponements of various sports due to the spread of the coronavirus, the Pride didn’t expect their dream season to end without a buzzer.

“We were all surprised,” Buie said. “I didn’t agree with them cancelling it. I thought they should’ve postponed it for a while, but I don’t know. Who am I? They must know more about this.”

There is no one who will ever know if Hofstra — widely projected to be a 14th-seed — could have become a bracket-busting Cinderella.

“You never know what could have happen. That’s why it hurts. Who could we have possibly upset?” Buie said. “You’ve been dreaming about this your whole life. I was just looking forward to Selection Sunday, seeing Hofstra on TV. That would be surreal.

“I was so excited to play. I was hoping to create something for myself, to get some people to notice who I was, and show who I am as a player and a person. For us seniors, we don’t get another shot at it. I don’t know what’s next. That’s the scary part. I hope I get to play somewhere and have a long career.”

The future arrived prematurely. Mihalich just hopes the past will be defined by more than one excruciating day.

“My message to the guys when I got through all the emotional stuff was, ‘Look, your last game this year, you were on the big stage, you climbed up a ladder, cut down the net, hugged each other, you were champions your last game. That’s how you walked off the floor,’ ” Mihalich said. “You’re gonna be one of the teams that ended the season a champion. Enjoy that. Make that be your last memory.”