Positive COVID test puts end to Duke’s season
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Duke is out of the ACC men’s basketball tournament after one player on the team tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Blue Devils scuffled through the regular season to finish 11-11, but perked up at the start of the ACC tournament, beating Boston College and Louisville to gainfaint hopes of making the NCAA Tournament.
Those hopes are dead now. the Blue Devils were scheduled to play Florida State in the ACC quarterfinals Thursday night, and the conference tournament will go on without them.
Duke’s athletic director announced Thursday that the rest of the team is quarantining and the season is over.
“This season was a challenge for every team across the country and as we have seen over and over, this global pandemic is very cruel and is not yet over,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement. “As many safeguards as we implemented, no one is immune to this terrible virus.”
It will mark the first time Duke will miss March Madness since 1995, when Krzyzewski missed most of the season with back surgery. Maybe this season wasn’t quite as ugly as that one, but it was close.
Back in December, when the Duke women’s team opted out of the entire season, Krzyzewski questioned whether the men should be playing. In January, Krzyzewski berated a student reporter and ultimately had to apologize. Last month, the team’s best player, Jalen Johnson, opted out to protect himself for the NBA draft.
The NCAA field will be announced Sunday, as usual, before a slightly altered tournament schedule begins in Indiana on Thursday.
BOSTON— Jake DeBrusk returned after being benched one game for lack of effort and scored his first goal in almost a month, chasing Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev early in the second period and leading the Bruins to a 4-0 victory on Thursday night.
“The reason I played that way tonight is I was (ticked) off,” said DeBrusk, who watched Tuesday night’s game from the press level as a healthy scratch. “I’m keeping that. It’s not going away.”
David Krejci scored his first goal of the season and Brad Marchand collected two assists — one of them after sliding the puck through his own skates to set up Patrice Bergeron’s shorthanded goal that gave Boston a 2-0 lead after one. David Pastrnak also scored for Boston, and Jaroslav Halak stopped 28 shots for his second shutout of the year.
The Bruins snapped a two-game losing streak and earned just their fourth victory in 11 games.
Georgiev stopped 10 of the 14 shots he saw before he was pulled five minutes into the second period after allowing back-to-back goals 1:21 apart to Krejci and
DeBrusk. Keith Kinkaid came on and stopped all 13 shots the rest of the way for the Rangers, who lost their third in a row.
“I don’t want to point the finger at Georgie, but their chances did go in and ours didn’t,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “I don’t want to point the finger at one person; this wasn’t on one person.”
DeBrusk, who scored 16 goals as a rookie in 2017-18 and 27 the next year, had just one score and four assists in 17 games before coach Bruce Cassidy sat him for Tuesday’s game against the Islanders. Asked why, the coach didn’t hold back, saying, “We just feel we’re not getting the effort required.”
“I liked what I saw tonight,” Cassidy said Thursday. “I’m happy that he scored — him and Krech both. They’ve been a little snakebit. Should be good for their confidence.”
DeBrusk scored for the first time since Feb. 18, converting a crossing pass from Krejci to make it 4-0 and chase Georgiev. The 24-year-old forward also recorded two hits and blocked a shot in 15:48 of ice time.
“I’m a pretty easy target at the moment. I understand the territory. It’s pretty much warranted,” said DeBrusk.