POSITIVE TESTS DERAIL KANSAS, VIRGINIA RUNS

For the second time in as many days, major conferences called off tournament games because of COVID-19 concerns — this time involving No. 11 Kansas and No. 16 Virginia.

The Jayhawks withdrew from the Big 12 Tournament on Friday after a positive test within the program, which led to the cancellation of their semifinal matchup with No. 13 Texas.

And earlier Friday, the ACC canceled the semifinal game between the top-seeded Cavaliers and Georgia Tech because of a positive test, quarantining and contact tracing within the Cavaliers program. The announcement came less than 12 hours before the Yellow Jackets and Cavaliers were set to play the first of two semifinal games.

That means Georgia Tech will advance to Saturday’s championship game to face Florida State. And in the Big 12, the Longhorns moved on to the title game to face Oklahoma.

It is unclear what the COVID-19 issues mean for the Virginia and Kansas going forward, though the Jayhawks released a statement that they would continue preparing for the NCAA Tournament.

The Jayhawks learned earlier this week they would be without center David McCormack and backup forward Tristan Enaruna due to COVID-19 protocols. They beat No. 25 Oklahoma 69-62 in the quarterfinals without them, and had gone the entire season without an outbreak that forced a cancellation or postponement.

“Obviously we are disappointed and our players are disappointed that they can’t continue to compete for the Big 12 championship,” coach Bill Self said in a statement. “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.” ✶