David Cutcliffe: Duke Moving to Daily COVID-19 Testing

Duke has had success in avoiding any COVID-19 outbreaks in the preseason. Now that the season is starting, coach David Cutcliffe knows the team can’t let down.

“The players’ health and safety is number one in everything we’re doing,” he said. “We’re taking the time that it takes. It’s not just testing. It’s the protocols—the two different locker rooms we’re using for physical distancing, the masking. I feel really awkward now without a mask, because I wear one all day long.”

Cutcliffe credits the Blue Devil players for the success the team has had.

“Every bit of this requires our players to have extreme discipline,” he said. “I could not be more proud of them for what they’d done.”

Now, the team will begin regular-season testing, at double the levels required by the ACC.

“We’ve been testing twice a week, a big part of the time since we’ve been back,” he said. “The guys have done great with that. Now we’re moving into the daily testing we’re going to do here. The conference is doing three times a week. We’re going to be going into a daily regiment. It takes time, but we’re willing to take the time for our players’ sake. It’s important to us.”

Duke will also need to take on another challenge this week—traveling to a road game during a pandemic.

“There are a lot of different ways we’re going about traveling,” Cutcliffe said. “How we’re going to do it. It’s a unique time. I’ve learned a lot—a great deal about the spread of any infectious disease. We’ll continue a lot of these paths in the future. Hopefully, COVID-19 gets behind us at some point, but I still think we’ve all learned a lot about trying to stay healthy and safe.”