Positive Coronavirus Case Delays Monmouth Men's Basketball Season
LONG BRANCH, NJ – Just as college basketball got rolling across the country on Wednesday, Monmouth University’s season will be delayed because of a positive coronavirus test within the program, the university announced.
The school announced that its men’s basketball program is entering a two-week pause because of the confirmed case, which postponed Wednesday night’s scheduled opener against Hofstra. The Hawks’ other two non-conference games against Maryland on Dec. 1 and against St. Francis-Brooklyn on Dec. 4 have been canceled, the school announced.
The earliest the Hawks can return to the court will be Dec. 9, which is just two days before Monmouth is scheduled to begin its league schedule against Iona.
“I don’t know how we’ll handle the game, that will be up to the coaches and sports medicine staff,” Monmouth athletic director Marilyn McNeil said, according to the Asbury Park Press. “The players have the ability to keep in shape while in quarantine. So the players can shoot one at a time with sanitizing in between, they can stay in shape one at a time, so they’re not stuck in a dorm room.
“I wish the CDC would change those quarantine rules because I do think there is enough research to tell you that you don’t need 14 days, but oh well. The Northeast is cautious. We’re not going to fight them. We just take what is given us and work with it.”
This is the second two-week pause the Hawks have experienced this season. Monmouth had another positive case in late October. Several other Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference programs have been forced to temporarily shut down practice due to positive cases.
“I want to play. I have to state that because I know how badly these kids want to play,” said Monmouth coach King Rice said earlier this month . “But at some point we’ve got to start looking at it and say, ‘OK, should we be doing this?’
“As I said to my wife before I left the house, it’s not going to be cool if I get it and die and now my sons grow up without their dad, because we have to do it for the NCAA. Hey man, everybody needs to look at what’s going on. If the whole world around us and is getting sick and blowing up and we’re not in a bubble, what do we think is going to happen?”
This article originally appeared on the Long Branch-Eatontown Patch
