The men’s basketball game between 18th-ranked Virginia Tech and No. 16 Florida State scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee remains in doubt because of ongoing complications within the Virginia Tech program related to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Hokies Coach Mike Young.
No players have tested positive, Young indicated Monday morning during the ACC’s weekly coaches conference call with reporters, but test results for at least one other member of the Hokies’ Tier 1 group came back positive, and the team continues to follow contact tracing protocols. Tier 1 is the highest-exposure group under NCAA coronavirus guidelines and includes athletes, coaches, trainers and medical and equipment staff.
“I am sick to my stomach,” Young said. “Here we are in mid-February, and I’ve got a good basketball team. I’m having the time of my life coaching this team, and to have an interruption, disruption, whatever it is, is concerning. … We’ve got a lot of things to look forward to around here, I think, I hope, and we have this. It’s unfortunate, but there’s not a thing we can do about it.”
The Hokies (14-4, 8-3) are in third place in the ACC, percentage points behind second-place Florida State (11-3, 7-2), which recently came off a pause following its own virus concerns. The schools were slated to play this past Tuesday, but the game was postponed with Virginia Tech dealing with its virus-related issues.
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The postponement marked the first time the Hokies have had to modify their schedule because of virus concerns within their locker room. Virginia Tech has had five conference games postponed, including one against first-place Virginia, because of opponents’ coronavirus issues.
If the Hokies play Saturday, it would be their first game since an overtime win at Miami on Feb. 6. Virginia Tech’s subsequent game against the Seminoles was postponed, as was its next scheduled game Tuesday against North Carolina.
Virginia Tech also has been shorthanded because of an ankle injury suffered by Jalen Cone, a starting guard and one of the Hokies’ top three-point shooters. Cone began the season as a reserve but moved into the starting lineup when Tyrece Radford was suspended indefinitely amid a legal matter.
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“We’ll do the best we can,” Young said. “I mean, I’ve got no chance of practicing with 10 guys. I had six as of last week. I’m not real sure what I’ll have today at 1 o’clock when we go, so do the best we can with it and hope that it doesn’t continue to affect us here moving forward.”
There are three weeks left until the start of the ACC tournament in Greensboro, N.C., and with five games remaining on its regular season schedule, Virginia Tech is facing the prospect of having to play three times during one of the final two weeks to make up just one postponed game.
If Saturday’s game against the Seminoles winds up being scrapped, and if Virginia Tech and Virginia are unable to find a date to accommodate the second leg of the Commonwealth Clash, the Hokies will have faced the two other ACC front-runners only once combined this season.
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After dealing the No. 7 Cavaliers their only ACC loss this season Jan. 30 in Blacksburg, Virginia Tech will hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Virginia if the teams are unable to reschedule their postponed game from Jan. 2 but finish with identical conference records.
The Cavaliers have played one more ACC game than Virginia Tech and three more than Florida State. It’s unclear if any of those schools will be able to add postponed conference games in the final weeks, leaving the possibility the regular season champion will be decided among schools with unbalanced schedules.
“I hope we have an opportunity,” Young said about rescheduling at least one postponed game. “I’m not sure where that opportunity is going to be to play three games in a week. I had to do that some in the Southern Conference [when he was coach at Wofford], and that’s no fun. It’s really a challenge.”
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