GREENSBORO, N.C. — Virginia is joining Duke in seeing its ACC tournament ended by COVID-19.
The top-seeded Cavaliers discovered a positive case among their program and the Virginia-Georgia Tech semifinal game scheduled for Friday night is canceled, the ACC announced Friday morning.
Georgia Tech advances to Saturday’s ACC championship game.
No. 6 seed North Carolina and No. 2 seed Florida State will play Friday night at 8:30 p.m. to determine who plays Georgia Tech in the title game.
Virginia’s withdrawal from the ACC tournament comes one day after Duke ended its season due to one positive test in its basketball program.
The Blue Devils (13-11) were scheduled to play Florida State in a Thursday night quarterfinal game. But because of the positive test with a walk-on player and subsequent contact tracing that would have left more players unavailable to play, the Blue Devils ended their season.
Jim Phillips, who replaced the retired John Swofford as ACC commissioner last month and is overseeing the tournament for the first time, released a statement about the situation on Friday.
“I’m heartbroken for our student-athletes, coaches and support staff at both Duke and Virginia,” Phillips said. “Our teams have worked incredibly hard and sacrificed so much throughout this season. We continue to be led by our ACC Medical Advisory Group and the protocols put in place that have allowed our teams to safely compete during the 2020-21 season. We will follow the lead of our medical personnel to ensure the health and safety of our programs remain the top priority. Our student-athletes and schools have been remarkable this entire season while enduring incredibly challenging circumstances.”
Duke had yet to build a strong enough resume to earn an NCAA Tournament at-large berth.
That’s not the case for Virginia (18-6) and Friday’s announcement of the positive case puts the Cavaliers’ NCAA Tournament appearance in jeopardy. The NCAA requires seven consecutive days of negative tests before a team arrives in Indianapolis to play.
First-round games are scheduled to begin on March 19.
Virginia still hopes to be available for the NCAA Tournament, which the Cavaliers won for the first time in 2019.
“This is incredibly disappointing for our players,” Virginia athletics director Carla Williams said in a statement. “They have done what has been asked of them in very challenging circumstances. It is unfortunate the ACC tournament has concluded for us, but we have turned our attention to the NCAA Tournament. We are in communication with the appropriate officials regarding our participation.”
By finishing in the top four of the ACC standings in the regular season, Virginia was one of four schools that received double byes through Tuesday’s first round and Wednesday’s second round into Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Cavaliers defeated Syracuse, 72-69, on Thursday afternoon.
Players from both teams were tested after the game, in accordance with the ACC’s tournament protocols. The ACC announced the presence of a COVID-19 positive test result on Friday morning.
“We went from an exhilarating game-winning shot to beat Syracuse to a gut punch regarding the positive COVID-19 test within our program,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said in a statement. “I’m hurting for our players, especially our seniors. 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.”
