Duke basketball’s season-opener against Gardner-Webb postponed due to COVID issues
Duke’s scheduled season-opening basketball game with Gardner-Webb will not be played Wednesday.
COVID-19 issues with in the Gardner-Webb program caused the two schools to call off the game Monday morning.
According to information released by Gardner-Webb, an asymptomatic player tested positive and the school is going through its contact-tracing protocol.
Duke and Gardner-Webb had been scheduled to play at 8 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium. No make-up date has been set. While it is not certain the game will be made up, both schools said they “may seek to make up the game at a later date.”
No. 9 Duke is now scheduled to open its season against Coppin State at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Cameron.
Gardner-Webb has a game scheduled at Florida State on Friday that remained scheduled as of Monday afternoon. But Georgia announced it has canceled its home game with Gardner-Webb scheduled for Sunday. Georgia is seeking a replacement opponent.
“When learned mid-morning about Gardner-Webb’s situation, we immediately started working on what our next steps can be,” Georgia head coach Tom Crean said in a Monday afternoon statement. “We are currently in that process and are hopeful we will be able to find another opponent for Sunday. We wish Gardner-Webb the best through this period and the season.”
Duke’s Dec. 4 game at home with Bellarmine, part of the school’s Duke Classic event, remains on schedule but is also on shaky ground. Due to COVID-19 issues within its program, Bellarmine rescheduled its first three games to later, making the game at Duke its season opener.
Duke is the second ACC program to see its season-opening game called off due to COVID-19. On Nov. 11, Miami announced its home game with Stetson, scheduled for Wednesday night, would be postponed due to a positive test in the Stetson program. The game has since be rescheduled to Dec. 4.
While Virginia is opening the season Wednesday against Maine at the Mohegan Sun casino’s arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, the Cavaliers’ scheduled game with Florida at the same location on Friday has been postponed due to COVID-19 issues at Florida.
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 12:01 PM with the headline "Duke basketball’s season-opener against Gardner-Webb postponed due to COVID issues."