Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis tests positive for COVID-19 ahead of season opener
Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, making him the third major college basketball coach to do so ahead of the start of the season later this month.
Davis, the school announced, tested positive during a regularly-scheduled test on Monday. He retested on Tuesday, but is now in quarantine at home. He will remain there in isolation while the program conducts contact tracing and waits for his secondary test to return.
He will miss their first two games of the season assuming that the second test confirms his coronavirus diagnosis, and will be replaced by assistant Ronnie Hamilton until he can return.
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) November 17, 2020
The Rebels are set to open their season next week when they host Clemson on Nov. 25, and then Texas State on Nov. 30. The university is planning to allow 25 percent seating capacity for games.
Davis, 60, is preparing to start his third season with Ole Miss this fall. He’s compiled a 35-30 overall record in the past two seasons, and led them to the NCAA Tournament in his first year in Oxford. He landed there after a 16-year stint at Middle Tennessee, where he won six conference titles and reached the NCAA tournament three times.
Kermit Davis latest coach to test positive for COVID-19
Davis is just the latest prominent college basketball coach to contract the coronavirus.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, 65, tested positive himself earlier this month and said he was experiencing minor symptoms. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim announced his positive test on Sunday, but was asymptomatic.
According to ESPN, more than 20 men’s basketball programs across the country have suspended team activities due to coronavirus outbreaks, too.
There have been more than 11.3 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States as of Tuesday night, according to The New York Times, and nearly 248,000 deaths attributed to it. The country recorded more than 166,000 new cases on Monday alone, and is averaging more than 155,000 new cases a day over the past week — an all-time record. Mississippi has had more than 135,000 cases, and nearly 1,100 over the past week.
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