The Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball team has advanced to the ACC Tournament finals, just not the way that they had hoped.
On Friday morning, it was announced that due to a positive test within the Virginia Cavaliers program, that Virginia would have to pull out of the tournament and Friday night’s semifinal matchup between the No. 4 Yellow Jackets and No. 1 seeded Cavaliers would not be played. With the game being cancelled and Virginia unable to go on, the Yellow Jackets advance to Saturday’s tournament championship game.
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The Jackets will take on the winner of Friday night’s matchup between the No.6 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels and No.2 seeded Florida State Seminoles. Florida State claimed their spot in the semifinals in similar circumstances after Duke had to pull out of the conference tournament on Thursday due to a positive COVID test. It was the first positive test that the Blue Devils have had all season.
The cancelation of Friday night’s semifinal is a bummer not just for Virginia and Georgia Tech fans but college basketball fans as a whole. It was expected to be an exciting matchup between two of the country’s best teams. The Cavaliers still the defending National Champions have been consistently strong throughout the season while the Jackets have been one of the nation’s hottest teams over the last month. It would’ve also been a fantastic rematch of their game from earlier this season that saw the Cavaliers eel out a 64-62 win in Charlottesville.
While do to unfortunate circumstances, the day of rest could prove vital to the Jackets chances on Saturday night. The Jackets left Thursday afternoon’s game against Miami a bit banged up including a knee injury scare with Jose Alvarado. The day of rest should allow the Jackets to reenergize and hopefully get a bit more healthy before Saturday’s final. It will also be a slight advantage depending who wins Friday night’s matchup between Florida State and North Carolina. The Seminoles would be playing their second game in two days while North Carolina would be playing for a fourth straight day.
Tomorrow night’s ACC Tournament Championship game is currently slated for an 8:30 p.m. tip off on ESPN.