A positive COVID-19 test of a Gonzaga player and an administrative staff member didn’t stop the top-ranked team in the country from playing Auburn on Friday in the Fort Myers Tip-Off Classic.
Coach Mark Few said the team followed the tournament’s protocols and the Florida health board, and went ahead with the game despite the positive tests.
Two Gonzaga players, Dominick Harris and Julian Strawther, were not on the bench on Friday. Harris’s father Shawn tweeted that his son was in quarantine because he was a close contact of a teammate who tested positive.
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl was happy they played the game, despite his team coming up on the wrong end of a 90-67 result, after consultation between both teams’ doctors.
“I’m glad we got the game in and I hope nobody gets infected by it,” he told reporters.
Opting the play the game flies in the face of the NCAA’s guideline of a 14-day pause for a program if it has just a single positive test. Eight Big East teams have already gone into a pause because of positive tests and Iona did as well, without a single player testing positive.
