The Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball game versus the North Carolina Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, North Carolina has been postponed as of Monday afternoon, according to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The game was originally scheduled to be played on Monday at 7 p.m. inside the Dean E. Smith Center, but both of the schools’ administrators concluded that a postponement would remain necessary in order to comply with the ACC Medical Advisory Group report protocols.
“The postponement follows a meeting from both schools, who mutually concluded the game could not move forward today,” the league announced.
Miami (7-11, 3-10 ACC) has not had a game postponed or canceled due to coronavirus-related concerns prior to Monday, while North Carolina (12-6, 7-4 ACC) has had three postponements.
It was discovered by The Daily Tar Heel, UNC’s student newspaper, on Sunday that multiple Tar Heel players had been socializing at a party while not wearing masks or physically distancing themselves after the Tar Heels’ victory over rival Duke on Saturday.
Video obtained by the DTH shows UNC men's basketball players Armando Bacot and Day'Ron Sharpe maskless and partying alongside at least seven others, celebrating a win over Duke on Saturday night.
No in the video appears to be wearing a mask.https://t.co/TqEGYboQpW
— The Daily Tar Heel (@dailytarheel) February 8, 2021
Those identified included forwards Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe, who both played in the game against the Blue Devils.
College basketball reporter Jeff Goodman reported that Miami wasn’t comfortable playing in the game because of the video of the players partying without masks.
The reason that the Miami-UNC game has been postponed is because a video surfaced after the Tar Heels win over Duke in which Day’Ron Sharpe and Armando Bacot were partying without masks, source told @Stadium. Miami wasn’t comfortable playing the game.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 8, 2021
North Carolina director of athletics Bubba Cunningham said in a statement, “We are disappointed that tonight’s game against Miami is postponed and hope that every effort will be made to reschedule the game.”
In the teams’ last meeting on Jan. 5, Miami fell to North Carolina 67-65 at the Watsco Center off a game-winning, baseline floater from guard Andrew Platek. The Hurricanes have lost five-straight games to the Tar Heels, despite remaining one of three conference teams besides Duke and Virginia to have at least three road victories on Tobacco Road.
The Canes were already in Chapel Hill when the postponement of the game was announced. They will, however, face another road opponent in Notre Dame (7-10, 4-7 ACC) this Sunday in South Bend, Ind. Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga said that the team expects starting guard Chris Lykes (left ankle) to return this week after not having competed since early December.