The Florida State basketball programs are dealing with COVID-19-related issues for the first time this season.
The 18th-ranked FSU men (5-2, 1-1 in ACC) were set to host Duke (3-2, 1-0 in ACC) Saturday night. However, the ACC announced late Friday after 11 p.m. that the game had been postponed due to a positive COVID test and subsequent contact tracing within the FSU program.
The ACC also announced Saturday that the FSU women’s basketball (4-1, 3-1) game at Wake Forest (4-3, 1-2) slated for Sunday is also off due to COVID issues within the FSU program. It’s the sixth game the FSU women’s team has had either postponed or canceled this season – five previously due to opponents’ COVID issues.
No clarification has been given by the ACC about when either game could be made up. The ACC’s tightly-packed conference schedules for both men and women leave little room for make-ups.
Considering the fact that the FSU men’s and women’s teams share a training facility, it makes sense that a positive test within one program could spread to the other.
The FSU men’s team’s next two games this week at Syracuse (6-1) Wednesday and Pittsburgh (5-2) Saturday could also be in jeopardy due to their COVID quarantine situation.
Syracuse has had its challenges, too.
Syracuse was forced to cease basketball activities after its Dec. 19 home game against Buffalo after a positive test or positive tests were flagged within Buffalo’s program. The Orange’s next three games against Notre Dame, Wake Forest and North Carolina were postponed due to that COVID-related issue.
While Pitt played at Notre Dame Saturday, its scheduled game at Duke last Tuesday was postponed.
The FSU women are next slated to host No. 2 Louisville (7-0, 1-0) next Sunday, but that is now in jeopardy as well.
The FSU men’s scheduled season opener on Nov. 27 was postponed due to COVID issues within the Gardner-Webb program. But this marks the first time this season that FSU has had a positive test that affected one of its games.
Like with football, the ACC’s medical advisory group classifies basketball as a high-transmission-risk sport. The conference requires at least three COVID tests each week for everyone within the program.
FSU – like all ACC basketball teams – also utilizes microchip technology that helps determine the extent of quarantines after a positive COVID test is registered. FSU players wear the chips in their socks during practice and games.
FSU has taken a number of precautions to maintain as intact a bubble as it can, doing things like delivering meals to players’ apartments out of their scholarship allotment.
However, this shows how difficult the coronavirus is to avoid, a lesson FSU fans first learned when four of the Seminoles’ final five football games were not played due to COVID issues.
The question now turns to what the Seminoles’ short-term future will look like. FSU did not address the issue Saturday.
Many basketball programs that have encountered COVID issues have been forced to shut down for at least two weeks. If this is the case for the Seminoles, they would have at least three more games postponed or canceled. They’re slated to play at Syracuse Wednesday, at Pittsburgh Saturday and host NC State Jan. 13.
Before news broke late Friday that FSU had COVID issues and the game against Duke wouldn’t be played, Duke announced that head coach Mike Krzyzewski did not travel to Tallahassee for the game after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
Krzyzewski, the winningest coach in college basketball history with 1,160 wins, has been one of the most vocal coaches sharing his concerns about playing during the lingering coronavirus pandemic.
The Blue Devils canceled their remaining non-conference games Dec. 10 to allow players to spend the holidays with their families. The game against FSU was set to be Duke’s first game in over two weeks. The Blue Devils last played Dec. 16, a 75-65 win at Notre Dame.
“I don’t think it feels right to anybody. I mean everyone is concerned…” Krzyzewski said last month.
“You have 2,000 deaths a day. You have 200,000 cases, a million and a half last week. You have people saying that the next six weeks are going be the worst. To me, it’s already pretty bad. And on the other side of it, there are these vaccines that are coming out that where people say by the end of the month 20 million vaccine shots will be given, especially to our healthcare (workers) and the other who need it. By the end of January or in February, another 100 million.
“Well, should we not reassess that? And see just what would be best?”
The FAMU men’s basketball team (1-6), meanwhile, returned from its holiday break and played at South Carolina (2-2) Saturday afternoon. The Rattlers fell to the Gamecocks 78-71.
Saturday’s game was the Rattlers’ first since Dec. 18 when they lost at Georgia Tech. They are scheduled to open MEAC play Saturday in their first home game of the season against North Carolina Central.
– Courtesy Tallahassee Democrat