The NCAA announced on Tuesday that five positive cases of COVID-19 have been identified in 2,300 tests carried out so far this week before the NCAA Tournament. Those tested so far include members of team travel groups – not just players and coaches – as well as NCAA staff. The count of five positive cases is above the zero positives that were identified on Monday.
Because of the breadth of who was tested, NCAA senior vice president of basketball, Dan Gavitt, reiterated that the positive tests should not be assumed to have come from players or coaches.
“An assumption should not be made about any individual, or even any group, because the overall test numbers include both official team travel and staff and committee members,” said Gavitt.
In addition, Gavitt said that tournament officials do not expect to need one of the four substitute teams on hold in case a team needs to give up due to COVID-19.
“We are not anticipating this now,” said Gavitt on Thursday afternoon. “But again, we are living in a pandemic. So we take things day by day, and even hourly. But, fortunately, we are not aware of any situation that could result in the arrival of a replacement team.”
Later, at 6 pm on Tuesday, the Eastern deadline for choosing a substitute team passed without Louisville, the main substitute team, being contacted, source said Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. With no team forced to withdraw from the tournament, he basically “blocks”.
Gavitt confirmed that 67 of the tournament’s 68 teams arrived, with Virginia as the only exception. The Cavaliers were forced to withdraw from the ACC tournament last week due to a positive case of COVID-19, but they should be on time to complete the necessary protocols to play their first round game Saturday night against Ohio.
The Cavaliers plan to arrive in Indianapolis on Friday, but Level 1 personnel must register seven consecutive negative tests before arrival. Once on site, Level 1 personnel must record two additional consecutive negative tests on separate days before leaving quarantine. That schedule would mean that the Virginia folks who will be making the trip will come out of quarantine a few hours before the scheduled 7:15 ET departure from Ohio on Saturday.