Duke's Season Opener Postponed After Gardner-Webb Has Positive COVID-19 Test

The Duke men's basketball team announced Monday that its season opener against Gardner-Webb has been postponed after the Bulldogs registered a positive COVID-19 test within their program. 

The Blue Devils will instead start their season at home against Coppin State on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. 

The coronavirus pandemic has also forced major programs like Arizona State, Baylor, Florida and Villanova to either postpone or cancel their season-opening contests, per Myron Medcalf of ESPN. 

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski has been a proponent of only holding a league schedule amid the pandemic. He's also expressed the opinion that the NCAA should consider pushing back the start of the season.

"I'm glad that [the NCAA is] looking at different things, including I would hope they always keep in mind that if it did get bad, worse than what it is, that maybe you could have [the season] later," he said last week. "I've always been a proponent of that, starting the season later."

The Blue Devils will open the 2020-21 season ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press Poll and No. 8 in the Coaches Poll. They are loaded with upside, with both a mix of young prospects (Jeremy Roach, Jalen Johnson) and returning talents (Joey Baker, Wendell Moore Jr. and Matthew Hurt).

Whether they have enough talent to be a national championship contender remains to be seen. Certainly, they are one of the early favorites to win the ACC. For now, however, the bigger concern remains how to keep players and staff safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic.