Duke women’s basketball ends season after athletes decide not to play during pandemic
With the coronavirus pandemic raging around the country, and reported daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the virus the highest in North Carolina this month than they have been, Duke women’s basketball players decided playing their sport was not worth the risk.
The school announced Friday it is ending its women’s basketball season after only four games. The move came at the insistence of the Blue Devils players after the program had been put on pause on Dec. 16.
It does not affect the Duke men’s basketball program.
“The student-athletes on the Duke women’s basketball team have made the difficult decision to conclude their current season due to safety concerns,” Michael Schoenfeld, Duke’s chief communications officer, said in a statement. “We support their decision, as we have supported the choices made by all student-athletes at Duke during this unprecedented time. Duke will maintain our current schedule of competition in other sports and will continue to observe our rigorous health and safety protocols, which include daily testing for all student-athletes and are based on guidance from leading medical experts.”
Duke is the first school in a major conference to end its women’s basketball season. The Ivy League, as a whole, decided not to play men’s or women’s basketball last month.
A Duke athletic department spokesman said athletic director Kevin White and coach Kara Lawson would have no further comment beyond Schoenfeld’s statement. That also applies to Nina King, Duke’s deputy athletic director who oversees women’s basketball and who chairs the NCAA women’s basketball committee this season.
The players are also not available for comment.But Duke senior center Jade Williams posted a message on her Twitter feed Christmas night supporting the decision.
“Our health and safety is our #1 priority,” Williams wrote.
Duke women’s basketball paused team activities on Dec. 16 when it announced two positive COVID-19 tests among its traveling party. The positive cases, which did not involve players, were discovered one week after Duke’s 73-49 loss to Louisville at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Dec. 9.
That turned out to be the final game the Blue Devils would play this season. The Blue Devils went 3-1.
After the Louisville game, Lawson was asked about the pandemic, and said, “I don’t think we should be playing right now. That’s my opinion on it.”
Two days later, the ACC announced Louisville’s scheduled game with North Carolina was postponed due to positive tests, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing within the Louisville team.
The following day, on Dec. 12, the ACC called off Duke’s game at Miami because of contact tracing at Duke, not due to any positive cases. Four days later, the program announced a temporary pause because of the two positive cases. Games with Miami, N.C. State and UNC Wilmington had been postponed this month.
Duke’s COVID-19 testing, safety guidelines for athletes
As a school, Duke implemented strict guidelines to keep its students and employees safe during the pandemic. While many schools welcomed their athletes back to campus last June, Duke’s football players were the first to return in mid-July.
Basketball players returned two weeks later.
When the athletes arrived on campus, they were immediately tested for COVID-19 and placed in quarantine at the Washington Duke Inn hotel. They were allowed to leave quarantine upon a negative test. Any positive tests required isolation.
Through this process, the school discovered 25 positive cases in the first two weeks after athletes returned to campus. But Duke’s protocols worked as no widespread outbreaks occurred and no teams, prior to women’s basketball this month, had to pause team activities due to the virus.
Duke only allowed freshmen and sophomores to attend in-person classes in the fall semester.
Athletes stayed by themselves in single room situations and were not allowed to leave campus to visit with family and friends during the season.
Following its game with Illinois on Dec. 8, Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski responded to a question about the pandemic by saying the NCAA needed to take a close look at the situation before deciding whether games should continue.
Two days later, Duke announced the men’s basketball team would only play conference games this season, canceling the remainder of its nonconference schedule. That allowed its players to disperse, for the first time since arriving on campus Aug. 1, after its Dec. 16 win at Notre Dame before returning to campus on Thursday.
Upon returning to campus to prepare for a Dec. 29 game with Pittsburgh, those players are going through the same protocols they experienced last summer.
ACC’s coronavirus protocols as NC cases, hospitalizations surge
The ACC formed a Medical Advisory Group last summer to establish league-wide protocols for sports to be played during the pandemic. The guidelines were updated as recently as Dec. 1.
Basketball is considered a high-risk activity because of the close proximity of the players and coaches and the fact that it is played indoors, according to the ACC’s guidelines. That means players, coaches and other team personnel must be tested within 48 hours after a competition and 72 hours prior to the next competition.
Duke, though, goes a step further by running those tests daily.
In its latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic in the state, North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services declared that 90 of the state’s 100 counties have critical or significant community spread taking place while the health care system is experiencing a strain on resources.
At least 494,511 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 6,360 have died, according to state health officials.
Earlier this month, Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order mandating a daily curfew from 10 p.m.-5 a.m., with exceptions in place for anyone leaving their home to get food or medicine, or if they are seeking health care or going to work.
This story was originally published December 25, 2020 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Duke women’s basketball ends season after athletes decide not to play during pandemic."