NORFOLK, Va. — Due to concerns of the coronavirus, as many as 13 conferences have cancelled their basketball tournaments on Thursday. Among them the Atlantic Coast Conference (Virginia and Virginia Tech), Conference USA (Old Dominion), and the Atlantic 10 (Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason and Richmond).
As of this moment, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament is still in progress with four games slated for the day. The third seeded Norfolk State men are scheduled to play tonight at 8pm against 6th seeded Coppin State. In the Division III NCAA Tournament, both the Christopher Newport women and men are still scheduled to play on Friday. The women are on the road in Amherst, Massachusetts when they face Mary Hardin-Baylor at 5pm, while the men have a 6:30pm home game against Hobart College. It will be limited to just family members of student/athletes participating, essential personnel, and credentialed media members.
As for local professional teams like the Norfolk Admirals, their front office says they're proceeding as planned. They've got home dates on March 18th against Orlando and the 21st versus Reading. The team is taking precautions at Scope with extra hand sanitizers. Meanwhile, the Norfolk Tides say they are monitoring the situation. They'll be following the lead of their parent club, the Baltimore Orioles and Major League Baseball, who's expected to suspend spring training as of now with the start of the season possibly delayed.
