5 West Virginia men's basketball players test positive for covid-19
West Virginia postponed the start of the men’s basketball team’s offseason workouts for two weeks after five players and a staff member tested positive for covid-19.
The Mountaineers were scheduled to begin workouts Monday.
Those who tested negative can start workouts July 20.
The players and staff member who tested positive will self quarantine for the next 14 days.
“The recent positive numbers tell me the safest thing to do is put a pause on the start of our men’s basketball workouts,” athletic director Shane Lyons said in a statement. “The well-being of our student-athletes is the top priority, and we will continually monitor our men’s basketball situation in hopes of starting on July 20.”
West Virginia athletics also said in a statement that contract tracing procedures have identified others who could have been exposed, and they will be mandated to self-quarantine.
In addition to the basketball program, West Virginia has had recent positive tests in the football (4) and women’s soccer (1) programs.
Bill Hartlep is the TribLive sports editor. A Pittsburgh native and Point Park graduate, he joined the Trib in 2004, covering high school sports. He held various editing roles before assuming his current position in 2019. He can be reached at bhartlep@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.