For the second time in as many days, major college conferences called off games in their postseason tournaments for men’s basketball due to COVID-19 concerns – this time involving the 11th-ranked Kansas Jayhawks and the No. 16 Virginia Cavaliers.
In the Big 12 tournament, the second-seeded Jayhawks (20-8) withdrew Friday after a positive COVID-19 test within the program, which led to the cancellation of that night’s semifinal matchup with 13th-ranked, third-seeded Texas.
Earlier in the day, the Atlantic Coast Conference called off a semifinal between top-seeded Virginia (18-6) and fourth-seeded Georgia Tech due to a positive test, quarantining and contact tracing for the Cavaliers. The announcement came less than 12 hours before the game’s scheduled tipoff.
It’s unclear what this means for Kansas and Virginia beyond this week, though the Jayhawks released a statement that they would continue preparing for the NCAA tournament. The 68-team bracket for March Madness will be revealed Sunday, and Virginia is the reigning NCAA champion, having won the most recent title awarded in 2019, with last year’s tourney canceled days before tipping off due to the pandemic.
The NCAA tournament’s coronavirus protocols include requiring each member of a team’s travel party to complete seven negative COVID-19 tests before leaving for Indiana, where the entire event will be held this year, but a team can compete as long as it has five players available while maintaining the protocols. NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn declined to comment Friday on the Kansas and Virginia cancellations.
What’s clear is that Georgia Tech (16-8) advanced to Saturday’s championship game to face 15th-ranked, second-seeded Florida State (16-5), which won 69-66 against sixth-seeded North Carolina in the lone ACC semifinal played Friday night. And in the Big 12, the Longhorns (18-7) moved on to the title game to face 12th-ranked, fifth-seeded Oklahoma State (20-7), which beat second-ranked, top-seeded Baylor 83-74, dealing the Bears just their second loss in 24 games this season.
Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said on a Zoom call with reporters that the ACC should not cancel the rest of the tournament, even though the three teams left were already almost certain to receive NCAA bids
“We want to go win that game and put our name in the record book,” said Pastner, who added he hopes the Cavaliers also get to compete next week.
“They’re the defending national champions. They’re our league champions,” he said.
In a Virginia release, coach Tony Bennett described the outcome of the tests as a “gut punch.”
“I’m hurting for our players, especially our seniors,” Bennett said. “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.”
In the same release, Virginia athletic director Carla Williams said the school was “in communication with the appropriate officials regarding our participation” in the NCAA tournament, which starts next Thursday with its First Four games before hitting full swing the following day with 16 first-round matchups.
The cancellations came a day after Duke withdrew from the ACC tournament and ended its season – as well as any hope of extending its streak of NCAA tourney appearances to 25 in a row – due to its own positive test. The Blue Devils, who had won two straight games to improve to 13-11, were supposed to face Florida State in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
The Jayhawks, who had gone the entire season without an outbreak that forced a cancellation or postponement, learned earlier this week they would be without center David McCormack and backup forward Tristan Enaruna due to COVID-19 protocol. They beat seventh-seeded, 25th-ranked Oklahoma 69-62 in the Big 12 quarterfinals without them.
“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 release. “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 set up 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.”