The NCAA announced Tuesday that five positive COVID-19 cases have been identified out of 2,300 tests performed so far this week before the NCAA tournament. The team that has been tested so far includes members of the team’s traveling parties – not just players and coaches, as well as NCAA officials. The five positives case counts more than zero money which was identified till Monday.
Because of the breadth of who has taken the exam, Dan Gavitt, senior vice-president of the NCAA’s basketball team, reiterated that positive tests from players or coaches should not be taken for granted.
“There should be no assumptions about any individual or any group, as the overall number of tests includes the official tour parties of both teams as well as the working staff and committee members,” Gavitt said.
In addition, Gavitt said tournament officials do not expect one of the four replacement teams on standby in the event of a need to exit the team due to COVID-19.
“We’re not expecting that right now,” Gavitt said Thursday afternoon. “But, again, we’re living in an epidemic. So we take things every day, and even hours. But fortunately, we don’t know about the situations that will be replaced by a replacement team.”
Later, at 6.00pm on Tuesday, the top replacement team is being approached without an earlier deadline for the replacement team to be selected. The source said Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. By not forcing any teams to withdraw from the tournament, it essentially creates “locks”.
Gavitt confirmed that 67 of the 68 teams have arrived, with Virginia being the only exception. The Cavaliers were forced to withdraw from the ACC tournament last week due to a positive COVID-19 case, but are expected to arrive on time to complete the protocol needed to play a first-round game against Ohio on Saturday night.
The Cavaliers are scheduled to arrive in Indianapolis on Friday, but Tier 1 troopers must report seven consecutive negative tests before arrival. Once on site, Tier 1 employees must report two consecutive negative tests on separate days before leaving the quarantine. That timeline means the Virginia employees who make the trip will be out of trouble for some time in the hours before their scheduled 7:15 ET tip against Ohio on Saturday.
