Tuesday night’s game against Duke has been postponed following a positive COVID-19 test within the Panthers’ program.
Called after positive COVID-19 test in Pitt program
Pitt’s Tuesday night game at Duke has been postponed, the ACC announced Monday.
The postponement comes after a positive COVID-19 test within the Panthers program, which has prompted ongoing quarantining and contact tracing. The team was informed of the positive test while on its way to the airport for a flight to Durham, N.C.
A new date for the contest has not yet been determined.
The team is adhering to protocols established by the ACC medical advisory group. As outlined by the group, players in high-risk sports such as basketball, have to undergo a polymerase chain reaction or antigen test within 48 hours of the conclusion of a game. If that high-risk sport is played indoors, like basketball, the league requires that tests be administered on non-consecutive days. While in-season, any member of the team must quarantine for 24 hours after returning to campus following a break of three days or more.
Since head coach Jeff Capel tested positive for the coronavirus, which was revealed Dec. 19, Pitt had increased its testing frequency to the point where players and coaches were tested almost every day.
Though no link between the events has been determined (or at least publicized, Pitt’s players were permitted by the team’s coaches to go home for Christmas.
“The reality is for our guys, they’ve been up here for a while,” associate head coach Tim O’Toole said after a Dec. 22 loss against Louisville, a game in which he served as the acting head coach while Capel was in quarantine. “There’s no one here. There’s no one around school. I know Jeff was really concerned. There’s got to be some normalcy somewhere.”
It marks the first time this season that one of the Panthers’ games has been canceled, postponed or altered, putting them among an increasingly small group of Division I teams whose schedules had not been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With Monday’s development, Virginia Tech is now the only ACC program that hasn’t had a game postponed or canceled this season.
Even for a program like Pitt that hadn’t previously dealt with interruptions, there was a general belief that one would eventually arise. Heading into the season, Capel was asked if he would take a deal that guaranteed his team would play 20 games (of a scheduled 25). Yes, Capel said, he would take that if given the chance.
Pitt (5-2, 1-1 ACC) isn’t slated to play again until Saturday, when it is scheduled to face Notre Dame at home in a matchup that tips off at 2 p.m.
Toney ready to play
Junior wing Au’Diese Toney will return to the lineup for the Panthers for their next game, Capel said Monday, after he mised a 6454 loss to Louisville on Dec. 22 with a right ankle injury.
Toney had been listed as “day to day” at the time, but Capel said the Alabama native practiced with the team Sunday evening and Monday morning.
Toney’s return provides a much-needed reinforcement for a Pitt team that will look to get whatever it can to try to make up for the loss of star forward Justin Champagnie, who will be out six to eight weeks with a knee injury.
As the Panthers scramble to do that, Toney’s re-emergence is paramount.
If Champagnie is the team’s best and most important player, Toney isn’t particularly far behind in either category.
Six games into his junior season, the 6-foot-6 guard/ forward is second on the team in scoring (16.2 points per game) and rebounds (five per game).
In addition to being the team’s best defender, he has shown significant offensive improvement from his first two college seasons.
This season, he is shooting 52.5% from the field, up six percentage points from last season, and 40.9% from 3-point range, an improvement of eight percentage points from the 2019-20 campaign.
With that added efficiency, his points-per-game average is up nearly seven points from the 9.5 he averaged last season.