Saturday night’s qualifying clash between Duke and the state of Florida has been delayed due to COVID problems that arose on Friday night on the FSU program, sources told CBS Sports.
The ACC has not yet decided on a date for a possible makeup game. The postponement also questions Florida Florida’s scheduled 5-2 clash on January 6 against Syracuse.
A few hours earlier, on Friday night, Duke announced that coach Mike Krzyzewski would lose the victory for the 20th Blue Devils in the 18th state of Florida after being exposed to an individual who tested positive for COVID-19. Duke flew to Tallahassee on Friday, but Krzyzewski did not travel with the team, in an effort to observe standard quarantine protocols.
Associate head coach Jon Scheyer was to serve as interim head coach for Saturday’s game. Here was Duke’s opening statement, before the FSU news landed later on Friday night.
Duke was scheduled to end a two-week layoff from the competition. It was just the most recent setback for the team linked to the pandemic, which up to this point is mainly related to scheduling. Four of his games this season have been delayed or canceled because of problems with COVID-19, most recently his December 29 game against Pitt, which was delayed because of problems with COVID-19 under the Panthers program.
Duke (3-2) fought non-conference games and, notably, canceled his previously postponed non-conference games in December, choosing not to reschedule them so that players could spend more time with family during the holidays. It is Duke’s worst start since the 1999-2000 season.