Duke pulls out of ACC tournament after positive Covid test

Duke’s run in the 2021 ACC tournament has come to an end ... after winning back-to-back games.

The morning after the Blue Devils’ second round win over Louisville, a player tested positive for Covid-19, forcing the team to pull out of the tournament. Duke had been scheduled to face second-seeded Florida State in the quarterfinals Thursday night.

The good(?) news for Louisville is that the player who tested positive for Duke has been widely reported to be a walk-on who did not play in last night’s game. If the Cardinals get left out of the NCAA tournament, it shouldn’t be (fingers crossed) for Covid reasons.

It should be mentioned that there has been a spike in Covid cases on the Duke campus that has become so bad that it shut down the Blue Devil football team’s spring practice session. With that being the case, it seems silly that the basketball team was traveling to and from Durham every day instead of staying in Greensboro like every other team in the conference.

I suppose none of that matters now. Duke’s season is (likely) over.

The Blue Devils now own the odd distinction of having not lost an ACC tournament game since 2018, but having just one championship over that span.

What a bizarre state of affairs we’re still in.

UPDATE: U of L has released the following statement:

In light of today’s announcement of a positive test, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing within the Duke men’s basketball program, the following is an update on the University of Louisville team, which faced Duke in the ACC Tournament second round last night. Test results for all UofL Tier 1 individuals following last night’s game were negative and we are confident through the ACC’s use of Kinexon digital proximity technology that we will not experience any contact tracing that would affect our team. Our group is tested daily and on a path to have the requisite consecutive days of negative tests to be able to compete in the NCAA Tournament.