No. 2 Duke clears COVID protocols, is set to return to action against Georgia Tech
Duke’s holiday break, extended an extra week due to COVID-19, is on the verge of ending.
After seeing two ACC games postponed due to their own virus-issues last week, the No. 2 Blue Devils once again have enough healthy players and expect to play Georgia Tech at 9 p.m. Tuesday night, as scheduled.
On an ACC Zoom call with reporters Monday morning, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said the team will have all but one player at practice on Monday, with the possibility of having the entire team for the first time since before Christmas.
“Yesterday we had just about everybody back,” Krzyzewski said. “But it’s been a very difficult time for our program. We are looking forward to getting back to 100%.”
Health and safety protocols were the announced reason the Blue Devils were unable to play scheduled games at Clemson last Wednesday and at Notre Dame on Saturday. Duke (11-1, 1-0 ACC) last played on Dec. 22, a 76-65 win over Virginia Tech at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Since then, the players scattered for a three-day holiday break. When they returned, COVID-19 test results caused the Clemson and Notre Dame games to be postponed in accordance with the ACC’s updated scheduling guidelines established by the league’s Medical Advisory Group. The ACC is looking to reschedule both games.
“COVID hit our program extremely hard,” Krzyzewski said. “It went through most of our players and is still finishing up. It went through a lot of our staff, including our support staff.”
ACC requirements say a team must have a minimum of seven scholarship players and one coach available in order to play a game.
Krzyzewski said has not been infected. But, even as of Monday, the Blue Devils don’t have a full coaching staff available.
“We haven’t had a full complement of coaches for a couple of weeks,” he said. “Still don’t.”
Assistant coach Nolan Smith missed the last two games prior to the holiday break as he quarantined.
Georgia Tech (6-6, 0-2 ACC) dealt with COVID issues of its own during December. The Yellow Jackets’ game at Syracuse, scheduled for Dec. 29, was postponed due to the health and safety protocols in place. Georgia Tech’s game with Louisville, originally scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m., was rescheduled for Sunday night.
Louisville beat Georgia Tech, 67-64, in Atlanta in the Yellow Jackets’ first game since Dec. 21.
Meanwhile, so many Duke players tested positive, and were thus forced into isolation, that the team was unable to do much on-court work, even individually, over the last two weeks.
“It went through just about our whole team,” Krzyzewski said. “So we’re not in the shape that we had been in before. So it’s going to take time to ramp up. Then we have to be careful in how you ramp up that you don’t binge conditioning so that you get injuries that would last far longer than just ramping up.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 9:47 AM.