Virginia may be on the worst NCAA tournament bubble.
It is not about the quality of the Cavaliers’ game. He is the 2020-21 regular season champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They rank 13th in the NCAA assessment tool, also known as net rankings. He was scheduled to play in the ACC tournament semi-finals on Friday.
Yes that’s right We have changed the time on you. Yuvi’s game against Georgia Tech was canceled due to a positive COVID-19 test within the Cavaliers program, and now their status is uncertain for the NCAA tournament, where they are technically defending the champion because They won in 2019 and no tournament was held in 2020.
They are not automatically excluded from competition in the NCAAA. But even though a team with a Virginia record is sure to be on the bracket in a simple season, it is not a lock that they will be in Indianapolis next week with 67 other teams.
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This was from a document submitted to all aspiring NCAA tournament teams at the end of January:
“From approximately Saturday, March 6, all individuals in the 34’s official travel party will require seven consecutive daily negative COVID-19 tests before arriving in Indianapolis.
“If a participant tests positive before arriving in Indianapolis, or is scheduled to have a close contact, they will be managed by the local public health authority and cannot travel to Indianapolis until the isolation or quarantine period is complete. is.”
So a lot of it comes down to how many people are deemed to be “close contacts” to the person who tested positive, and also how many positive tests can be done before the Cavaliers team aircraft are flown to IND.
For example, if a team like UVA can assure the NCAA that it has five eligible players who will not be included in both of those categories, it can still be included in the field. And if some of those who are unable to make the initial visit only in the “close contact” category, it is anticipated that the group may travel at a later date – relying on those “local public health” officials as the time required. .
This is not necessarily a complication for the NCAA tournament selection committee. It has set a deadline of 11 a.m. Saturday night for teams to notify the NCAA that their medical condition will not allow a team to be sent to Indianapolis.
If necessary, and when work begins on Sunday, official members have a lot of time to adjust the seed list, and to compile the official bracket.
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There is also an established protocol if a team were to believe themselves to be in a position to travel for a tournament and then learn, just before departure or soon after arrival, that it had positive tests that would make it out of the competition. Will do it. The NCAA will designate teams as numbers 69-72, a team in the front line should be selected as a big entrant who is forced to withdraw from the championship. So long as it takes place before 6 pm on March 16, the teams or teams that will be next in line will be eligible to enter the tournament on the seed line, which was assigned to the withdrawing team.
It has been almost a year for ACC to attempt to compete during the epidemic. According to research compiled by Taylor Aldridge of the Wichita Eagles, the ACC completed 81.3 percent of its games in Week 23 in the regular season, which was 23rd in the Division I conferences.
With the Virginia Conference eliminated from the tournament, it became the second ACC team in as many days. Duke did so before the quarter-final game against Florida State due to positive testing and subsequent contact tracing. The Blue Devils chose that time to end their season. They were unlikely to be selected for the NCAAS in the ACC tournament without further achievement.
“We extend our heartiest congratulations to our student-athletes, coaches and support staff at both Duke and Virginia,” ACC’s new commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement released to the media. “Our teams worked incredibly hard this season and made sacrifices. We continue to be led by our ACC Medical Advisory Group and implement protocols that have allowed our teams to compete safely during the 2020-21 season. We will follow the lead of our medical personnel to ensure that the health and safety of our programs remain a top priority. Our student-athletes and schools have been notable throughout this season, enduring incredibly challenging situations. “
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