Ohio State will not play Kentucky on Saturday in Las Vegas due to multiple COVID-19 positive tests within the Buckeyes program.
On the same day Penn State had to cancel a game against VCU due to cases within the Nittany Lions program, Ohio State learned that one undisclosed key member of the lineup tested positive and would miss the Kentucky game. That set into motion a sequence of events and decisions about whether to leave, when to leave and if Saturday’s game could still be played.
No one aside from the one player was displaying any symptoms as of Thursday morning, but a team lifting session was shut down and players were sent to the practice gym for socially distanced PCR testing. Thursday’s practice in Columbus was canceled as the players sat and waited for two hours for results, with just one more positive test necessitating a cancelation of the Kentucky game.
Ohio State was slated to fly to Las Vegas at 3 p.m. After the morning’s events, practice was slated to take place after the team’s arrival in Nevada.
The game will not be rescheduled.
The Buckeyes have a fully vaccinated roster, but players are likely to start getting booster shots within the next week. Ohio State is scheduled to host Tennessee Martin on Tuesday before taking a break for Christmas. Its next game is scheduled for Dec. 28, when New Orleans comes to Value City Arena. It's unclear what the status is for either game
Thursday morning, Holtmann met with reporters and was asked about the recent rise of positive Covid tests among sports teams.
“We’ve had to have real conversations about what’s happening both in professional and college sports,” he said. “There have been breakthrough cases among our staff this past year. You’re really aware of it and I think those kind of conversations and that dialogue is very much a part of what we’re doing right now.”
UCLA, which is scheduled to play North Carolina in the first game of the CBSSports Classic, canceled Wednesday night’s game against Alabama State roughly an hour before tip. Hours before that, the university announced that coach Mick Cronin would not be coaching due to Covid protocols. Thursday morning, UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond posted a statement to Twitter stating that there was no update yet about Saturday’s game against the Tar Heels.
As of Wednesday night, seven NCAA Division I men’s basketball programs had gone on pause due to COVID-19: Abilene Christian, Cleveland State, Georgia State, Nevada, Tulane, Wagner and Washington.
The Buckeyes made it through the entirety of the 2020-21 season without any positive tests within their program. Just one game had to be canceled, a non-conference one against Alabama A&M.
