Notre Dame-Duke postponement gives Irish schedule a tentative feeling again
Mike Brey held out hope.
Reports surfaced Monday that Notre Dame’s Jan. 1 home game vs. Duke would not be played due to the Blue Devils’ COVID-19 issues, but for about 48 hours the ACC gave no official word the game was called off. Brey ended his press conference after Notre Dame’s 68-67 win over Pittsburgh on Tuesday hoping the league’s silence meant there was a chance the No. 2 team in the country would make its trip to South Bend as scheduled.
“We may play a game Saturday, I hear,” Brey said. “Stay tuned.”
The ACC’s Wednesday afternoon press release, though, squashed his optimism and threw the Irish’s chance at a marquee conference win up in the air. The league announced Notre Dame and Duke will not play on New Year’s Day and will attempt to make up the game. Tickets from the original game will be honored for the makeup, if it happens. The Irish’s next scheduled game is Jan. 5 at home against North Carolina.
The Omicron variant has given COVID-19 a renewed grip on college basketball in recent weeks, and with it, postponements and cancellations felt inevitable. It was a matter of time before the virus dealt Notre Dame’s schedule a haymaker. Thursday’s women’s basketball game at Virginia was also postponed because of the Cavaliers’ COVID-19 issues.
Now the question is how long Notre Dame can hold off an outbreak within its own ranks. That ability may largely be rooted in luck, but it’s worth noting none of the Irish’s eight cancellations last year were due to their own COVID-19 problems.
What’s clear, though, is schedules will carry a feeling of instability amid the virus’ surge. Every game feels tentative. Notre Dame received an unwelcome reminder of it. Last season’s mass cancellations serve as a warning that makeup games for every sideswiped contest are far from guaranteed.
If Notre Dame and Duke can’t reschedule the game, the Irish would lose their best opportunity to enhance their résumé in conference play. At No. 2 in the Associated Press top 25 and No. 6 in KenPom, the Blue Devils are the highest-ranked team on Notre Dame’s schedule. The rest of the ACC, meanwhile, has just four teams in the KenPom top 50 and none in the Associated Press poll.
There is some hope a team’s COVID-19 pauses won’t last quite as long as last year. The CDC announced Monday it is shortening the quarantine and isolation recommendations for people who test positive for COVID-19 from 10 days to five. That means last year’s two-week stoppages for teams with outbreaks could now last less than one week if conferences update their virus protocols to align with the CDC’s adjustment.
The SEC has already reportedly done so. The ACC has not yet announced any changes.
Even with some adjusting, though, “stay tuned” is the proper perspective to keep with schedules for now.
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