Duke basketball schedule: Blue Devils in limbo once again

Once again, Duke basketball is on the lookout for an opponent this weekend.

For the second time in a few days, the Duke basketball program has seen a scheduled opponent cancel its plans for Saturday afternoon due to positive COVID-19 tests.

Initially, the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils (9-1), now coming off Thursday night’s 92-67 win at home over the Appalachian State Mountaineers, were to play the Cleveland State Vikings at 4 p.m. ET Saturday. But on Wednesday, the Vikings nixed their trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium after members of their program tested positive.

Then on Thursday, Duke announced it had found a replacement foe in the Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds. They were going to face the Blue Devils in Durham at 4 p.m. ET Saturday, thus allowing patrons to gain entry simply by using their original tickets and parking passes for the Cleveland State bout.

Roughly 24 hours later, though, the Greyhounds revealed that their program has since produced positive COVID-19 tests of their own, thereby putting the Blue Devils in limbo once again.

Will Duke basketball find another replacement in time?

According to the official Twitter account of the Duke basketball program, the Blue Devils are now in search of yet another fill-in for 4 p.m. ET Saturday in Cameron. At the time of this article’s publishing — approximately 24 hours to go until the scheduled tipoff time — there has been no word as to whether they will be able to do so in time.

This now-in-limbo game for Saturday was supposed to serve as Duke’s last in non-conference play before its ACC slate begins.

So now, as it stands, the next opponent on the Blue Devils’ schedule is the Virginia Tech Hokies. They will play in Durham at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday — or at least that’s the hope, anyway.