COVID-19 protocols knock VCU out of men’s NCAA Tournament’s first-round game against Oregon
The scenario NCAA Tournament officials have long feared has occurred.
The first-round game between Oregon and Virginia Commonwealth was called off three hours before it was supposed to begin Saturday night and VCU is out of the men’s tournament after “multiple positives” within the last 48 hours. VCU athletic director Ed McLaughlin wouldn’t say how many of the Rams have tested positive for COVID-19, but said the team had hoped it would still be allowed to play because it had at least the minimum five players required to start a game.
“The feeling of the committee that was communicated to me was that, given how we had a few happen in a short period of time, there was certainly concern not only for the rest of our team, but for opponents and anyone else who’d be part of the game going forward,” McLaughlin said.
“What we have come to understand with it is the multiple positives within that 48-hour window was what gave the health department folks cause for concern,” McLaughlin added.
Though McLaughlin said he has no idea where the outbreak began, CBS Sports reported that VCU stayed in the same hotel for last weekend’s Atlantic 10 title game as the officiating crew, which included Roger Ayers.
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Ayers tested positive for COVID after arriving in Indianapolis for the NCAA men’s tournament, and John Adams, the former NCAA coordinator of officials, said Saturday that Ayers is at home “holding his own.
