UNC basketball’s game against Syracuse has been postponed

Yesterday the Atlantic Coast Conference announced that UNC’s game on January 2nd against Syracuse has been postponed. It has come to light that players of a recent Syracuse opponent tested positive for COVID-19, and due to ACC guidelines put in place by the ACC Medical Advisory Group, the Orange will now have to quarantine before returning to the court. They already missed Tuesday’s game against Notre Dame, and will also miss their game against Wake Forest.

Considering how the schedules have been done for the ACC this year, there should be more than enough space for UNC to get the game against Syracuse rescheduled. Perhaps the biggest concern at this point, however, is how many more times this will happen in conference play. One team missing three games in order to comply with the ACC protocol is a lot to make up later to say the least, and at some point one has to wonder if games will be canceled altogether if a team tests positive in late February. Hopefully we don’t find out what that scenario looks like, but it’s still something worth keeping an eye on.

This postponement of the Syracuse is now the second game that UNC has been unable to play on it’s original date. Previously Elon had to cancel their game against the Tar Heels due to COVID issues, but UNC managed to get a game scheduled against NCCU instead. So far in the ACC Virginia has missed the most amount of games thanks to COVID, as they had one game canceled, and two postponed. Duke technically has missed one more game than the Cavaliers, but it is because of Coach K’s decision to not play the rest of their non-conference schedule.

Hopefully within the next few weeks we will find out when UNC will be able to make up their game against the Orange. The Tar Heels will close out the calendar year next Wednesday against Georgia Tech before traveling to Coral Gables to take on Miami the following week.