Duke Postpones Upcoming Basketball Games Against Clemson and Notre Dame

Duke has postponed their trip to Clemson that was originally scheduled for Wednesday, December 29th. The Blue Devils have also postponed their trip to Notre Dame that was scheduled for Saturday, January 2nd.

The Tigers are red hot and riding a four game win-streak. Unfortunately, they will have a 12 day lay-off before playing Virginia for a second-consecutive contest. The Tigers beat Virginia on Wednesday, December 22nd. The win snapped an 11-game losing streak to Virginia.

Last year, the Tigers had several games canceled due to COVID-19, and only played 16 ACC regular season games as a result. Fortunately, they played nine at home compared to just seven on the road because the cancelations happened to skew towards road games.

Missing a shot at Duke in Littlejohn Coliseum is unfortunate. The Tigers still play them in Cameron Indoor Stadium, but KenPom only gives them an 18% chance to win that game. The Tigers had a realistic shot at a resume-building win with Duke coming to Clemson.

The new ACC rules stipulate that it is not a forfeit and they will try to reschedule the game for a later date. The rules also stipulate that they had to play as long as Duke had seven players and one coach available, therefore their outbreak has to be fairly broad. It is unclear if players are considered unavailable only by a positive test result or if other precautions can rule them unavailable too.

Hopefully this doesn’t sap Clemson’s momentum and they can flip the 11-game losing straight to Virginia into a two-game win streak when the teams rematch. Stay tuned to see if that game is moved up or another contest is adjusted to get the Tigers back on the court before January 4th.