All-ACC Basketball Player to Miss 1st Round of NCAA Tournament

One ACC basketball team who has qualified for the NCAA Tournament will be missing their best player. According to ESPN, Georgia Tech star Moses Wright will miss the Yellow Jackets' first-round game against Loyola-Chicago on Friday. If Georgia Tech wins the game, it's likely Wright will miss the second-round matchup against the winner of the Illinois-Drexel game.

The reason for Wright's absence hasn't been confirmed, but it's possible that he could have been the member of the traveling party who isolated after testing positive for COVID-19 on Monday after the team arrived in Indianapolis. Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner and the team spokesperson couldn't offer confirmation to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution due to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

"Nothing's more important than your health, and thank the good Lord right now that the individual is asymptomatic, and we just want him to remain that way," Pastner said on Tuesday. "But it's a gut punch. It stinks." Wright is a big reason the Yellow Jackets won the ACC Tournament and playing in the NCAA Tournament, the team's first appearance since 2010. He was named ACC Player of the Year after averaging 17.4 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.8 blocks per game.

"It's like, night and day, honestly, coming this far and getting ACC player of the year," Wright said. "I don't know how many people can actually say that. They didn't play their freshman year, barely played sophomore year, then senior year, named ACC player of the year and first-team, defensive team and all that. This is an amazing feeling. I feel like I accomplished so much and there's just so much more out there for me to accomplish, too."

Georgia Tech doesn't have the same basketball prestige as Duke or North Carolina but has had success over the years. The Yellow Jackets have won five ACC Tournament Championships and have reached the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament twice (1990, 2004). They have played in one championship game (2004) but lost to Connecticut.

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