Louisville basketball postpones Kentucky game due to positive COVID-19 tests
The surge of impact on college basketball games by COVID-19 made its way to Louisville on Monday, when the men's basketball program announced it was pausing basketball activities – and postponing Wednesday's game against rival Kentucky – due to “multiple positive COVID-19 tests within the program.”
According to the school's news release, U of L and UK officials will “monitor opportunities in which the teams can reschedule the annual rivalry game.”
Kentucky announced on Monday that it will host Western Kentucky in the 6 p.m. Wednesday time slot it would have played Louisville. The Cardinals' next scheduled game is Dec. 29 against Wake Forest.
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The game with WKU puts UK at 31 regular-season games scheduled, which is the NCAA maximum. In order to reschedule the Louisville game, the Wildcats would need an NCAA waiver or another canceled game that creates a slot.
During his radio show Monday, Mack painted a pessimistic picture for rescheduling the game.
Mack said that after the postponement he checked Kentucky's schedule and saw limited options for makeup dates. The Wildcats don't have a week off in SEC play and their only Saturday without an SEC game is Jan. 29, when they'll play a nonconference game at Kansas.
"Who knows?" Mack said. "With all these cancellations that happen, I'm hopeful that we can still play the game. But I don't have a crystal ball."
The decision to postpone Wednesday's game was made by U of L's chief medical officer, spokesman Kenny Klein said, based on the multiple positive tests in the program. Louisville did not provide the exact number of positive tests.
In a text, Klein said Louisville's "top priority" is to keep its players and its opponents' players safe.
The Atlantic Coast Conference policy states that teams unable to play due to an insufficient number of available players related to COVID-19 does not apply to nonconference games. Louisville would not take a loss if U of L and UK can’t work out a makeup date.
Louisville is coming off an 82-72 loss at Western Kentucky in which it played without starting center Malik Williams, who was absent from the team. Though U of L did not name Williams, Klein said a player was not with the team due to COVID-19 protocols.
As of Monday afternoon, Louisville coach Chris Mack was not made available for comment. At a news conference last Friday, Mack said Louisville was taking increased precautions given the surge in COVID cases.
"We're doing the best we can, but with the amount of cases that have gone up around the country – and the fact is that they're, at least around the country, suspending games, canceling games, we're gonna have to step up a little bit in terms of what we're doing," Mack said. "So whether that's masking indoors when we're on the bus, just being careful around the hotel, those are things we have to account for so that we don't have issues like some of these teams have had where games are being canceled."
After Kentucky’s win against North Carolina on Saturday in Las Vegas – a game played because both the Wildcats and Tar Heels lost their scheduled opponents in the CBS Sports Classic due to COVID-19 – coach John Calipari said he hopes teams can continue to play with some positive tests.
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“We don't know where all this stuff goes, but my hope is that we are able to mitigate,” Calipari said. “If folks will get the booster we can mitigate. And then the other thing is, if you have eight guys, play. ’Well, I have three starters now.’ So do I, now let's play. We've got healthy guys that we've got to coach.”
This is Louisville basketball's third pause in less than two seasons. Positive tests put the Cardinals' 2020-21 season on hold twice, once in December of 2020 and again in February of 2021.
"We were one of the few top college teams in the country that had a couple COVID pauses in the middle of the season," Mack told the Courier Journal in August. "So when you come back after a seven day break or an eight day break, it's really hard to focus on your opponent when you really have to get your guys back in shape and get a rhythm back to what you're doing. It was just very, very difficult to be so choppy."
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville vs. UK basketball game postponed due to positive COVID tests
