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Syracuse has arrived in Indianapolis and is quarantining in a hotel, SU Director of Athletics John Wildhack told reporters on Tuesday.

All members of the SU men’s basketball team have tested negative for COVID-19 so far, Wildhack said. To travel to Indiana, the site of the 2021 NCAA Tournament, members of every team need to test negative seven consecutive days. Everyone is quarantined in their hotel rooms, only leaving to get COVID-19 tests.

“Right now, we’re fine,” Wildhack said. “We got tested yesterday when we arrived in Indianapolis. We got tested again this morning. We should get the results late this afternoon.”

If the results come back negative from today’s round, SU will begin practice either this afternoon or tonight, Wildhack said.

After Syracuse’s 72-69 loss in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament quarterfinals to Virginia, a Cavaliers player who competed tested positive for COVID-19 the next morning. SU head coach Jim Boeheim said the potential exposure was minimal — “no more than 48 seconds.”

Since the Virginia loss, no SU player has tested positive after multiple rounds of screening.

“We’ve been testing every day going back to before the ACC Tournament because we know that’s the NCAA protocol,” Wildhack said. “We’ve been working along the NCAA guidelines for a couple weeks now.”

The Orange have experienced their share of COVID-19 issues this season. Before the season-opener, the program went on pause following Boeheim’s positive test. In November, a walk-on tested positive, which forced shooting guard Buddy Boeheim to miss multiple games due to contact tracing. And in late December, multiple cases triggered another pause.

Wildhack said “we knew there were going to be challenges” with playing sports in a pandemic, but SU made the right decision to play while allowing individuals to opt out. Every rostered men’s basketball player participated in the 2020-21 season.

No. 11 Syracuse’s first round game is at 9:40 p.m. on Friday against No. 6 San Diego State in Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Wildhack said the women’s team — who secured a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Monday night — has yet to leave for Austin, Texas, but has not experienced any recent COVID-19 issues while testing daily in Syracuse. The Orange are scheduled to play their first game on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. against No. 9 South Dakota State.

Published on March 16, 2021 at 4:14 pm

Contact Danny: dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman