On Saturday afternoon, March 20, news broke that the VCU Men’s Basketball program had withdrawn from the NCAA Tournament due to multiple Covid-19 cases inside the program. VCU, also known as Virginia Commonwealth University, finished the regular season 19-7, going 10-4 in conference play, en route to a second-place finish in the Atlantic 10 Conference behind the likes of St. Bonaventure, whom VCU also lost to in the championship game of the A-10 tournament two Saturdays ago, 74-65. St. Bonaventure lost their first-round game in the tournament on Saturday, 76-61, to the Tigers of Louisiana State, also known as LSU.

     VCU made it into March Madness and was selected as a 10 seed in the West Region of the bracket, and were set to face the 7 seed Oregon Ducks out of the Pac-12 on Saturday, March 20 at 7:00 P.M. western time. Oregon finished the season 20-6; 14-4 in conference play. They won the Pac-12 regular-season championship, but lost to Oregon State 75-64 in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament.

     Oregon will be advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, also known as the Round of 32, where they will face second-seeded Iowa on Monday. Iowa won their first-round matchup over the Antelopes of Grand Canyon by a score of 86-74 on Saturday afternoon.

     As of 6:00 P.M. on Saturday evening, March 20, there was no news over how COVID-19 entered the VCU Men’s Basketball program, but some say it might have been caused by the team’s problematic stay at a hotel during the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament. 

      VCU is the first team to drop out of the NCAA tournament due to COVID-19. Three players tested positive, but we don’t know who those players are yet. Hopefully, no other teams will join them.

 

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For a complete schedule of March Madness and all the games, visit: https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2021-march-madness-schedule.