The Virginia basketball team has been excluded from the ACC tournament after testing positive for COVID-19, the ACC announced Friday morning.
The Cavaliers would face Georgia Tech in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament on Friday night after beating Syracuse in the quarterfinals.
We went from an exciting winning shot to beat Syracuse to a blow regarding the positive test for COVID-19 in our program, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said in a prepared statement. It hurts me for our players, especially our seniors. I told our young people that they have the right to be disappointed, but how they respond is very important. We don’t have many chances left to play in the NCAA tournament.
As a result, Georgia Tech automatically qualifies for Saturday’s ACC championship game against Florida State of North Carolina.
Of course we would have preferred to win to go to the finals, coach Josh Pasttner said on ACC Network’s Packer & Durham. But, hey, it is what it is. We have to be ready to play. You always play for the championship.
Virginia is the second team in as many days to leave the ACC Tournament due to COVID-19 and contact issues after Duke was eliminated Thursday morning.
It’s incredibly frustrating for our players, Virginia athletics director Carla Williams said. They did what was asked of them, and under very difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, the ACC tournament is over for us, but we have turned our attention to the NCAA tournament. We are in contact with the competent authorities about our involvement.
While Duke athletic director Kevin White announced Thursday that the Blue Devils’ season is over, that’s not necessarily the case for Virginia. To qualify for the NCAA Tournament, the team must test negative seven times in a row before arriving in Indianapolis, and then undergo daily testing in a controlled environment.
Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president for men’s basketball, also said the team only needs five healthy players to make the NCAA Tournament. If Virginia doesn’t have a widespread KOVID-19 outbreak and the rest of the team continues to test negative, the Cavaliers should be able to make the NCAA Tournament.
Saturday is the deadline for any team that believes it cannot meet medical protocols to report it to the Division 1 Men’s Basketball Commission.
My heart breaks for our student-athletes, coaches and support staff at Duke and Virginia, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement. We will follow the leadership of our medical staff to ensure that the health and safety of our programs remains a top priority. Our student-athletes have performed excellently all season and endured incredibly difficult conditions.
The ACC regular season champion, the Cavaliers, are ranked No. 4 in Joe Lunardi’s latest NCAA Tournament rankings. Because the NCAA tournament was cancelled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, Virginia remains the defending champion after winning the title in 2019.
We don’t know the details of the test in Virginia, so we don’t know what impact it may or may not have on our situation, said Pete Moore, a spokesman for Syracuse. It is safe to assume that we did not test positive for yesterday’s game against Virginia because all of our guys were safe to play.
Pastner said his team has not returned to Atlanta since the 4th. March left before the game at Wake Forest to build his own bubble. He told his players that you can only get into elevators with people in a bubble.
You can do whatever it takes to get a positive result. …. That’s what it comes down to, Pastner said. Are you lucky you didn’t get it?
Syracuse, meanwhile, said in a statement Friday that every Tier 1 in its program that traveled to Greensboro tested negative for the virus after the game against Virginia.
We are grateful to CCA for their extensive testing and sanitation protocols, including the use of Knexon’s digital proximity technology, said John Wildhack of Syracuse University. Syracuse continues to follow ACC and NCAA testing protocols, including daily COVID testing that began before the ACC tournament.
frequently asked questions
Will the CCA men’s basketball tournament be cancelled?
The ACC basketball tournament has been cancelled. ACC basketball fans will have to watch the men’s and women’s tournaments via TV or streaming because the league announced Thursday that no tickets will be sold to the public.
Is Virginia eliminated from the NCAA tournament?
Virginia has exhausted all chances to play in the NCAA Tournament after testing positive for COVID-19. The Virginia basketball team will not play in the ACC Tournament against Georgia Tech on Friday night due to a positive test for COVID-19 in the Cavaliers’ program.
Why is Duke not in the ACC tournament?
(AP) – Duke came to the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament hoping to make an unprecedented run and extend its long NCAA Tournament streak. Instead, the Blue Devils were forced to abruptly exit the tournament and end their season due to a positive test for COVID-19 and the resulting quarantine and contact period.
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