WHEELING — After 13 years, the Cancer Research Classic is going dark for 2021.

Dr. Gregory Merrick, the event’s founder and director, formally announced the decision this week to put the event on hiatus.

“Due to an enormous amount of uncertainties, there will be no CRC in 2021,” Merrick said in a statement. “CRC Basketball will continue to exist and continue to run multiple programs throughout the year.”

Merrick declined to elaborate on all of the “uncertainties,” but did leave the door open that the event could return in 2022 and or beyond.

“We hope the event will re-emerge in the future,” Merrick said. “I enjoy it and hope to still do it.”

With the reputation that Merrick and the CRC have built among the elite national teams, he doesn’t believe there would be an issue in coming back just as strong should he elect to do that.

“If I ran an event anywhere in America, we’d have people signed up,” Merrick said. “I do not think it will be a problem to get the event back on the map.”

The CRC was continually listed among the best basketball showcases in the United States each year. There are 58 current NBA players and hundreds of collegiate players who took part in the event, which started in 2007.

“It’s been an amazing 13 years,” Merrick said. “When we started, our goal was to be the best event in the country. We wanted every kid who played here to remember everything about the experience from the from the food, lodging, quality of games, etc. And I have no doubt that we achieved that.”

When the NBA holds its draft in June, Merrick expects the CRC’s alumni list grow by seven or eight.

“We’re extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished. We’ve had a marvelous product,” Merrick said. “We could re-emerge bigger and stronger than ever.”

Through CRC basketball, Merrick has hosted speaking engagements, skills clinics and coaching clinics. And he hopes to continue all of those.

“We may try to do a coaching clinic and we’re thinking about a possible skills clinic for what we think are the best kids in the OVAC,” Merrick said. “We’re going to be doing things and active.”

The CRC began as a one-day event at then Wheeling Jesuit University and outgrew the McDonough Center, which led to the event moving to WesBanco Arena in Wheeling in 2019. It also gained national media exposure with ESPN broadcasting several CRC games throughout the history of the event.