The Duke basketball schedule has already been impacted because of the Pac-12’s cancelation of all sports through the 2020 calendar year.
It was exactly five months ago to the date when the sports world would forever be changed as Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, causing the NBA to suspend its season.
That forced the hand of all conferences and the NCAA to cancel the remainder of the collegiate sports season, including the NCAA Tournament.
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Now August 11 feels eerily similar to March 11 as the Big Ten and Pac-12 have canceled their fall sports, including football, but the Pac-12 took things a step further.
According to multiple reports, the conference has canceled all sport competitions through the end of the calendar year, causing ripple affects across the landscape of college athletics, including Durham, North Carolina, where the Duke men’s basketball team was scheduled to compete in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament alongside Pac-12 member Utah.
As of now, the tournament is proceeding as scheduled, as it should, but that leaves one team missing, something that will have to be quickly addressed.
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Excluding the Duke Blue Devils and Utah Utes, the rest of the Battle 4 Atlantis field is Creighton, Memphis, Ohio State, Texas A&M, West Virginia, and Wichita State with the event scheduled to take place November 25-27.
No bracket was announced for the tournament prior to the cancelation of sports in the Pac-12.
Duke has welcomed all its athletes back on campus as the ACC is moving forward with a fall sports season, including football, and the men’s basketball team has already begun safe workouts in which players wear masks throughout the duration of their time on the floor.
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As collegiate athletics seem to teeter on the brink of cancelation once again, the void of leadership in the NCAA is as present as ever as conferences scramble on what is next to come.