Duke’s Coach K quarantining due to coronavirus exposure; game at FSU also postponed
Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski is quarantining due to contact tracing following exposure to a COVID-19 positive person.
Krzyzewski and his wife, Mickie, did not travel with the team to Tallahassee, Florida, on Friday ahead of Saturday’s scheduled ACC game between the No. 18 Seminoles and No. 20 Blue Devils. That game was postponed later Friday night due to coronavirus issues within Florida State’s program.
Associate head coach Jon Scheyer had been announced as the interim coach.
Neither Mike nor Mickie Krzyzewski has tested positive for COVID-19. They were in contact with a person who was not part of Duke’s travel party, thus the move to keep him away from the rest of the Blue Devils’ players and staff to avoid possibly exposing them.
Duke sophomore walk-on player Michael Savarino, Krzyzewski’s grandson, was not exposed to COVID-19 and traveled with the Blue Devils on Friday.
According to the Centers for Disease Control guidance, prolonged close contact is defined as being within six feet for at least 15 minutes.
The 73-year-old Krzyzewski’s status for any future Duke games, beginning with the team’s next scheduled game on Jan. 6 against Boston College, is uncertain.
The ACC’s quarantining guidelines
According to the guidelines established by the ACC’s Medical Advisory Group, a person quarantining due to contact tracing can exit the quarantine after seven days when “diagnostic testing resources are sufficient and available and a diagnostic specimen tests negative and if no symptoms were reported during daily monitoring.”
Duke, which tests its players, coaches and staff daily, certainly has the resources adequate to qualify for that option.
Duke has not played since Dec. 16, when the Blue Devils beat Notre Dame 75-65. The Blue Devils canceled their scheduled Dec. 19 game with Gardner-Webb when Krzyzewski opted to not have the team play any more nonconference games this season.
The Blue Devils were scheduled to play Pittsburgh at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night before that game was postponed due to a positive COVID-19 test and contact tracing in Pittsburgh’s program. Panthers coach Jeff Capel, the former Duke player and assistant coach, tested positive in December and missed a game with Louisville. Pitt uncovered an additional positive test last Monday, leading to the Duke game being postponed before the Panthers traveled to Durham.
Duke women’s basketball cancels season due to coronavirus
Krzyzewski’s quarantining comes one week after Duke’s women’s basketball team opted out of the remainder of the season due to health and safety concerns during the pandemic. The players made that decision after one of them, plus two members of the team’s support staff, tested positive following a Dec. 9 game with Louisville.
While Duke sophomore forward Wendell Moore said Thursday the men’s team supports the decision the women’s team made to not play, his team is comfortable going forward with its season.
“They said that was a decision that was best for them and we stand behind them 100 percent,” Moore said during a Zoom call with reporters. “We support our girls team. It’s a hard time and they made a tough decision for their program.”
The game at Florida State would have been the first time Krzyzewski didn’t coach the Blue Devils since Jan. 13, 2018, when an illness kept him away for an 89-71 win over Wake Forest at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Krzyzewski also missed seven games during January and February of 2017 when he had back surgery.
In both of those seasons, Capel coached the Blue Devils in Krzyzewski’s absence. He left to become Pittsburgh’s head coach in April 2018.
This story was originally published January 1, 2021 at 9:35 PM with the headline "Duke’s Coach K quarantining due to coronavirus exposure; game at FSU also postponed."