South Carolina coach Martin to miss LSU game

The latest news on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:

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South Carolina basketball coach Frank Martin and two other team members will not be traveling with the Gamecocks for a game on Saturday night at LSU.

The school said Martin, assistant coach Chuck Martin and Doug Edwards, responsible for student-athlete development, are at home because of COVID-19’s “health and safety protocols”.

South Carolina has lost its last two games due to the coronavirus and has only played twice since December 5.

Martin tested positive for the virus this spring. Assistant coach Bruce Shingler will lead the team against the Tigers. South Carolina, 3-2 this season, had seven games scheduled canceled because of COVID-19. It was last played on January 6, beating Texas A&M 78-54.

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The Atlantic 10 Conference is withdrawing its men’s basketball championship from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The new championship venue, which will be played from March 10 to 14, is under review and will be announced soon.

This will mark the first time since 2004 that the full championship will be played on a campus, when Dayton, Ohio, served as host at the UD Arena.

The Barclays Center has served as the venue for the conference championship for six years and is scheduled to host the 2023 and 2024 championships. The Capital One Arena in Washington was previously announced as the 2022 championship venue.

The A-10 women’s basketball championship is scheduled to take place at VCU’s Siegel Center, March 3-7, in Richmond, Virginia.

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Xavier’s scheduled men’s basketball game on Saturday at Seton Hall was postponed because of problems related to COVID-19 within the Xavier program.

Xavier is 10-2 overall and 3-2 in the Grand Orient. Seton Hall is 9-5 overall and 6-2 in conference games.

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Summit League men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be held without fans and moved to a smaller location in Sioux Falls because of the concerns of COVID-19, conference commissioner Tom Douple said on Thursday.

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The tournament is scheduled for March 6-9. It was originally scheduled for the Denny Sanford Premier Center, which seats about 12,000 seats, and will now be held at the 3,250-seat Sanford Pentagon.

“It is with deep disappointment, but also with deep conviction, that we come to this conclusion because the health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches, administrators, fans and the Sioux Falls community remain our top priorities,” said Douple.

This will be the 13th consecutive year that the Summit League basketball tournaments will be held in Sioux Falls.

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The left guard of the offensive Laurent Duvernay-Tardif says he hopes to return to the Kansas City Chiefs next season after giving up on the 2020 campaign because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 1.80 meter, 321-pound Canadian was one of the first NFL players to announce he would not play because of the pandemic, after helping the Chiefs win the Super Bowl last year. He chose to work at a long-term institution in Montreal.

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Duvernay-Tardif received his medical degree from McGill University in 2018 and continued working.

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Temple and Tulane will make up for their postponed men’s basketball game from the American Athletic Conference on Saturday after the other games these two teams were scheduled to play were postponed because of positive cases of COVID-19 and student-athlete contact tracking in East Carolina and Cincinnati.

AAC said two East Carolina games have been postponed, at home on Saturday against Temple and at the USF next Tuesday. The Cincinnati home game against Tulane, scheduled for Saturday, has also been postponed. The Temple-Tulane clash was originally scheduled for January 6.

AAC also said that the postponed SMU game in Memphis was rescheduled for January 26. Memphis had three consecutive games postponed due to a situation at COVID-19 involving the opposing team.

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The Atlantic Coast Conference says the men’s basketball game between Georgia Tech and the state of North Carolina has been postponed.

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The league announced the postponement on Thursday, saying it was due to a positive COVID-19 test, quarantine and contact tracking within the Wolfpack program.

This will be NC State’s sixth game canceled or postponed this season, including a series of four in a row in December.

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The third Villanova Wildcats ended a 10-day break for reasons related to COVID and returned to training on Thursday.

Coach Jay Wright said he hoped to be able to put on a full list when the Wildcats play Seton Hall on Tuesday at the Pavilion. Villanova has not played since the 23 December victory at Marquette.

Wright said he expects Caleb Daniels and Jermaine Samuels to be released in time for next week’s game. The Wildcats are 8-1 overall, but only 3-0 in the Big East. Wildcats must play a minimum of 20 games scheduled for Big East to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

Wright said “there are some scenarios that seem crazy” to clutter the schedule with the remaining scheduled games and a handful of games that must be rescheduled to reach 20. Wright says Big East is considering several options, including the possibility of relaxing the minimum number of games.

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Wright says there are still “good plans” to play the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

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A positive COVID-19 test on the Vermont women’s basketball program altered the schedules for the University and Albany men’s and women’s basketball teams this weekend.

Instead of visiting NJIT, women from UAlbany will host Maine at SEFCU Arena on Saturday and Sunday. The women’s series at NJIT will be rescheduled for a new date to be announced later by the Eastern American Conference.

The UAlbany men will still play NJIT at home, but Sunday’s game will be postponed to accommodate proper sanitation of the arena after the women’s game.

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Michigan is postponing a second consecutive men’s basketball game due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in its basketball program.

The school says it will not host Indiana on Sunday as scheduled.

The Spartans previously postponed a game at No. 5 Iowa on Thursday night because three players tested positive for the coronavirus. Players include pivot Mady Sissoko and point guard Steven Izzo, son of coach Tom Izzo.

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Michigan State and the Big Ten are working on options to reschedule games against the Hawkeyes and Hoosiers.

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Two more men’s basketball games from Georgetown – against Providence and Marquette – were postponed after Hoyas reported a positive COVID-19 test.

Georgetown was due to play at Providence on Saturday and host Marquette on January 20. This will represent three consecutive postponements for Georgetown and five in total this season. The Hoyas were due to host DePaul on Wednesday.

Coach Patrick Ewing’s team has 3-8 this season and lost their last five games.

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The state of Georgia has postponed its third consecutive game because of COVID-19.

The Panthers stopped all team activities for a week after several positive tests within the program, including athletes, coaches and support staff. This forced the postponement of two games against Sun Belt Conference rival Troy.

Georgia (7-2) was scheduled to play consecutive games against Coastal Carolina this weekend, but Friday’s dispute was canceled. The teams are still set to play on Saturday.

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Both programs are looking for possible makeup dates.

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More college basketball AP: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25