Coach Duke K left in COVID-19 quarantine after family member verification test

Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and his wife Mickie are living in quarantine after a family member tested positive for COVID-19, Coach K said Monday on a Zoom call. Both Coach K and his wife tested negative for the virus Monday.

Coach K will not coach when No. 21 Duke hosted Boston College on Wednesday, and said he hopes to be back for Saturday ‘s game with Wake Forest “if they allow that. He said that Duke Jon Scheyer ‘s assistant would take the lead against BC without him.

“A member of my family was positive and my wife and I were quarantined” said Coach K. “I will be quarantined for the rest of the week. ”

He said he learned about his own situation ahead of Duke’s recorded game at Florida State. The game went Jan. 2 put off on New Year’s Day after Florida State got three advanced tests within his program, Coach K.

“[The team] they were all good, they went down there, they had their last team meeting on Friday night and about 20 minutes after the meeting, Florida State officials informed them that there were three positive things, ”he said. “So that was a very difficult thing for them to get through.”

Duke (3-2, 1-0) has already postponed or postponed five games a total of six times this season due to COVID-19. The Blue Devils season opener against Gardner-Webb was initially shut down due to virus issues at GWU. The match was rescheduled for Dec. 19 and was postponed by Duke. Duke’s games against Elon (Dec. 6) and Charleston Southern (Dec. 12) have been postponed due to virus issues with these programs and will not be rescheduled. The most recent victories came this week when Tuesday’s game against Pitt was postponed due to Pitt’s COVID issues.

Coach K said he is “following” Monday’s team usage on Zoom and will be FaceTime with all players later Monday.

“We will do what we can,” he said. “I am in good health. I had a test about 20 minutes ago. My wife is also going to quarantine and we have both tested negative, and hopefully that can continue. ”

Coach K is 73 and is among several ACC coaches who have expressed personal concern about getting the virus.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, 76, had the virus, but said it felt “brilliant” nonetheless. After Boeheim returned November 23, his team was suspended on December 21 and four games were postponed. Boeheim said his team has missed about 30 practices. The Orange (6-1) are expected to host Pitt on Wednesday and Georgetown on Saturday after not playing since Dec. 19.

“It’s not fun not to play,” Boeheim said Monday. “It is definitely a difficult time and the players have been doing their best. It ‘s not ideal but it is and we just need to do what we can. We’re trying to prepare ourselves and I’m sure Pittsburgh is doing the same. ”

Jim Larrañaga of Miami, 71, also said he was concerned about his own health and the health of his players.

“I’m very worried about my own health,” he said on Monday. “I’m in that age group which is in that danger zone. “

He said: “If I get Covid I might look back and say I should have opted out. ”

Leonard Hamilton of Florida State, 72, also raised concerns.

“It should worry everyone,” he said. “It has been recorded that more people are being challenged by it. I’m a bubbler and I feel good about it. ”

He said: “It’s invisible, you never know when it’s coming. You just can’t worry about it. To say that I am not worried, my concern is only to encourage me to continue trying to avoid so many negative issues. [as possible]. ”

Coach K was asked if he stood by his previous views that the NCAA and college basketball should “re-evaluate” playing in a pandemic.

“When I spoke in December I said that we should evaluate what is going on,” he said. “I did not call for the end of the season or anything like that and obviously in this kind of situation, every program and the sport as a whole should make evaluations of what is best and basically what it is. that’s what programming does. ”

Asked what the response was, Coach K said: “We need to do what the people who run this say we should do. Again, do it with what your own institution tells you to do, so you don’t have to keep going and work out at the end how you judge how teams perform. get in [NCAA] Competitions. ”

The tournament will now be held entirely in Indiana, the NCAA announced Monday.

“Hopefully every program gets a good number of games where they can be judged and then the NCAA Committee has to decide what that judgment is, how do you do that,” said Coach K. “It’s so sorry for those teams. ”

As for Boeheim, he doesn’t think the season’s stop now makes sense.

“I don’t think it’s going to get any worse,” he said. “I think it can get a lot better. Without playing at all, you would not be able to start playing until June or July and that would not work. ”