2021 NCAA Tournament COVID: Georgia Tech has positive test but will play in Big Dance; not clear if player affected

The 2021 NCAA Tournament is going to be incredibly hard to handicap because of potential positive COVID tests sidelining players, and schools for HIPAA privacy reasons will not release whether a player has tested positive or not before a game – simply that "someone" has. On Tuesday, ACC Tournament champion Georgia Tech announced a member of its travel party tested positive for COVID. The Jackets are a No. 9 seed in the Midwest Region and face No. 8 Loyola (Chicago) on Friday. The Ramblers are 2.5-point favorites on the William Hill Sportsbook college basketball odds.

The person who tested positive is asymptomatic and contact tracing indicated no other travel party members were affected, so that's good news, but whomever it is will miss at least the first two rounds. The Yellow Jackets were tested after Saturday's ACC Tournament final upset win over Florida State and were cleared for travel. The positive test was discovered on intake in Indianapolis.

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Coach Josh Pastner said "It's a gut punch" to have somebody test positive but that it wouldn't affect the team's eligibility to play in the tournament: "We've done everything within our power to mitigate circumstances. We've been as careful as anybody. The guys don't even call me coach, they call me COVID-19 security guard. But we're dealing with an invisible ghost."

Tech (17-8) enters on an eight-game winning streak, its longest since the 1995-96 season. Its ACC Tournament semifinal game vs. Virginia was a walkover for the Jackets because UVA had to pull out with a positive test. It's the first NCAA Tournament berth for Georgia Tech since 2010.

We aren't going to sit here and speculate on positive results, but Tech's two best players are ACC Player of the Year Moses Wright and ACC Defensive Player of the Year Jose Alvarado. Wright, also a first-team all-conference choice, leads the Jackets in scoring (17.4 ppg) and rebounding (8.0 rpg). Alvarado, also named second-team All-ACC, is averaging 15.3 points, 4.1 assists and an ACC-best 3.0 steals per game.

To win the Midwest Region, Georgia Tech is +3000 at William Hill. Schools have until this evening to pull out of the NCAA Tournament if they won't have enough players to compete by their first scheduled game. 

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