Virginia is out of the ACC tournament following a positive COVID-19 test within the program, the ACC announced Friday morning.
The Cavaliers were scheduled to play Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament semifinals on Friday evening after defeating Syracuse in the quarterfinals. Georgia Tech will now automatically advance to the ACC championship game on Saturday against either Florida State or North Carolina.
Virginia is the second ACC team in as many days forced to withdraw from the ACC tournament due to COVID-19 issues and contact tracing, after Duke left on Thursday morning.
While Duke athletic director Kevin White announced Thursday the Blue Devils’ season was over, that’s not necessarily the case for Virginia. In order to play in the NCAA tournament, a team needs to show seven consecutive negative daily tests before arriving in Indianapolis, and then undergo daily testing while inside the controlled environment in Indianapolis.
Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of men’s basketball, has also said that a team just needs five healthy players to play in their NCAA tournament game. If Virginia doesn’t have a widespread COVID outbreak and the rest of the team continues to test negative, the Cavaliers should be eligible to play in the NCAA tournament.
Virginia, the ACC regular season champions, are a projected 4-seed in the NCAA tournament in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology.