2021 NCAA Tournament: Five positive tests for COVID-19, but no replacement team should be necessary

The NCAA announced Tuesday that five positive cases of COVID-19 have been identified out of 2,300 tests done so far this week ahead of the NCAA tournament. Those tested so far include members of the team’s traveling groups – not just players and coaches – as well as NCAA officials. The number of positive cases of five is up from the zero positive that was identified on Monday.

Due to the scale of the testing, NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt reiterated that the positive tests should not be assumed to come from players or coaches.

“An assumption should not be made about individuals, or even groups, as the overall test numbers include both official team travel as well as work staff and committee members,” Gavitt said.

Additionally, Gavitt said tournament officials did not expect to need any of the four back-up teams on hold in the event that one team had to drop out due to COVID-19.

“We don’t anticipate that at the moment,” Gavitt said Thursday afternoon. “But again, we are living in a pandemic. So we take it day by day, and even hour by hour. But luckily, we are not aware of any situation that would lead to the arrival of a replacement team. “

Later, Tuesday’s 6:00 p.m. ET deadline for a replacement team to be selected passed without Louisville, the top replacement team, being contacted, a the source said Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. In the absence of teams being forced out of the tournament, this essentially “locks in”.

Gavitt confirmed that 67 of the tournament’s 68 teams arrived, with Virginia being the only exception. The Cavaliers were forced to withdraw from the ACC tournament last week due to a positive case of COVID-19, but are expected to arrive in time to complete the protocols needed to play their first-round game on Saturday night against Ohio.

The Cavaliers were scheduled to arrive in Indianapolis on Friday, but Level 1 staff must record seven consecutive negative tests before the arrival. Once there, level 1 staff must record two more consecutive negative tests on different days before leaving quarantine. That timeline would mean Virginia staff making the trip will come out of quarantine hours before their scheduled 7:15 a.m.ET bet against Ohio on Saturday.