Monday's scheduled men's basketball game between the University of Miami and North Carolina was postponed after a video surfaced of maskless UNC players celebrating Saturday's victory over Duke at a party that ran into the early morning hours of Sunday.
As reported by The Daily Tar Heel student newspaper, the postponement follows a meeting between personnel from both schools "who mutually concluded the game could not move forward today," a statement from the Atlantic Coast Conference said. The conference added that both programs are continuing to adhere to the minimum outlined protocols within the ACC Medical Advisory Group report.
ESPN reported that the decision was made roughly two hours prior to tipoff in Chapel Hill.
“We are disappointed that tonight’s game against Miami is postponed and hope that every effort will be made to re-schedule the game," UNC director of athletics Bubba Cunningham said in a statement after the announcement.
Hours earlier, The Daily Tar Heel posted a Snapchat video that shows UNC standouts Day'Ron Sharpe and Armando Bacot partying with other young people. No one in the clip is wearing face protection. Sharpe and Bacot combined for 27 points in UNC's 91-87 win over Duke.
“There was a video that was out there with several of their players without masks at a party at 1 a.m. Sunday morning, which is less than 48 hours from our game,” Miami coach Jim Larrañaga told the Miami Herald. “Our president [Julio] Frenk is adamant that student-athletes are allowed to compete, but they’ve got to stay safe, social distance.
“Our guys have done a fantastic job. We have not had a single guy test positive and they were all unanimous that this isn’t right. We have been quarantining, hibernating, whatever you want to call it, and we don’t want to put ourselves in a position [to get the virus]. We came to a decision that it’s better to postpone the game.”
