Virginia joins Duke in exiting ACC tournament early due to COVID-19
Virginia is joining Duke in seeing its ACC tournament ended by COVID-19.
The top-seeded Cavaliers discovered a positive case among their program and the Virginia-georgia Tech semifinal game scheduled for Friday night is canceled, the ACC announced
Friday morning.
Georgia Tech advances to Saturday’s ACC championship game to play the winner of North Carolina and Florida State.
Virginia’s withdrawal from the ACC tournament comes one day after Duke ended its season due to one positive test in its basketball program.
The Blue Devils (13-11) were scheduled to play Florida State in a Thursday night quarterfinal game. But because of the positive test with a walk-on player and subsequent contact tracing that would have left more players unavailable to play, the Blue Devils ended their season.
Jim Phillips, who replaced the retired John Swofford as ACC commissioner last month and is overseeing the tournament for the first time, released a statement about the situation on Friday.
“I’m heartbroken for our student-athletes, coaches and support staff at both Duke and Virginia,” Phillips said. “Our teams have worked incredibly hard and sacrificed so much throughout this season. We continue to be led by our ACC Medical Advisory Group and the protocols put in place that have allowed our teams to safely compete during the 2020-21 season. We will follow the lead of our medical personnel to ensure the health and safety of our programs remain the top priority. Our studentathletes and schools have been remarkable this entire season while enduring incredibly challenging circumstances.”
Duke had yet to build a strong
enough resume to earn an NCAA Tournament at-large berth.
That’s not the case for Virginia (18-6) and Friday’s announcement of the positive case puts the Cavaliers’
NCAA Tournament appearance in jeopardy. The NCAA requires seven consecutive days of negative tests before a team arrives in Indianapolis to play.
First-round games are scheduled to begin on March 19.
Virginia still hopes to be available for the NCAA Tournament, which the Cavaliers won for the first time in 2019.
“This is incredibly disappointing for our players,” Virginia athletics director Carla Williams said in a statement.
“They have done what has been asked of them in very challenging circumstances. It is unfortunate the
ACC tournament has concluded for us, but we have turned our attention to the NCAA Tournament. We are in communication with the appropriate officials regarding our participation.”
By finishing in the top four of the ACC standings in the regular season, Virginia was one of four schools that received double byes through Tuesday’s first round and Wednesday’s second round into Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Cavaliers defeated Syracuse, 72-69, on Thursday afternoon.
Players from both teams were tested after the game, in accordance with the ACC’S tournament protocols. The ACC announced the presence of a COVID-19 positive
test result on Friday morning.
“We went from an exhilarating gamewinning shot to beat Syracuse to a gut punch regarding the positive COVID-19 test within our program,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said in a statement. “I’m hurting for our players, especially our seniors. I told our young men they have every reason to be disappointed, but it is still very important how they choose to respond. We are exhausting all options to participate in the NCAA Tournament.”
Kansas drops out of Big 12 tournament
Because of a positive COVID-19 test on Friday morning within the Kansas men’s basketball team, the Jayhawks have withdrawn from the 2021 Big 12 men’s basketball tournament.
KU, which was to play Texas in the semifinals at 8:30 p.m. Friday, will stay in Kansas City in preparation for the NCAA Tournament
“following the health and safety protocols set by Kansas Team Health,” KU said in a statement issued just before 1 p.m. Friday.
Members of the team will continue to be tested daily. KU did not report which player or member of the team’s traveling party had tested positive.
“Obviously we are disappointed and our players are disappointed that they can’t continue to compete for the Big 12 championship,” KU coach Bill Self said. “While we have been fortunate to avoid this throughout the season, there are daily risks with this virus that everybody participating is trying to avoid. We have followed the daily testing and additional protocols that have been setup for us, unfortunately we caught a bad break at the wrong time. I look forward to preparing my team in probably a unique way for next week’s
NCAA Tournament.”
KU’S David Mccormack and Tristan Enaruna did not travel with the team to the Big 12 tournament. They remained in
Lawrence, held out of competition because of COVID-19 protocols.
The Big 12 issued a statement that indicated “the cancellation (of Ku-texas game) follows a positive test, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing within the Kansas men’s basketball program.”
With the NCAA Tournament looming and KU assured of a berth, the team will continue to be tested daily per NCAA guidelines.
The NCAA released guidelines in January on NCAA Tournament protocols that stated,
“All Tier 1 travel party participants will be required to undergo and document seven consecutive negative COVID-19 tests prior to arrival into Indianapolis.” Tier 1 includes studentathletes, coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, medical staff, equipment staff and officials.