Schedules continue to be altered as basketball season about to begin
There have been the dreaded “pause in team activities” and plenty of anxious moments, but for some of the state’s Division I basketball programs, the season is set to begin with five games Wednesday. That number dropped by one when Sacred Heart announced that due to an inconclusive COVID-19 test in a member of the travel party, the first women’s basketball game against Fairfield since 2016 has been postponed.
The action will start with Providence coming to Hamden to meet the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team at 1 p.m. The Fairfield men’s team will play at Providence, led by former Fairfield coach Ed Cooley, at 2 p.m.
Quinnipiac men’s program will hit the court at 4 p.m. to play Fairleigh Dickinson. There have been plenty of fingers crossed on the Quinnipiac campus, especially after a couple of positive COVID tests resulted in the postponement of the men’s hockey team’s season opener against American International. The Bobcats’ women’s basketball schedule has been in a state of flux with games against UConn and either Maine or Mississippi State at Mohegan Sun Arena canceled when COVIDrelated issues affected the UConn and Maine programs. The Bobcats’ game against Central Connecticut State on Wednesday was replaced with the matchup against Providence.
With Maine pausing activities until at least Dec. 8 , this weekend’s men’s and women’s hockey series against UConn has been called off. It also forced the cancellation of Sunday’s men’s basketball contest against Quinnipiac.
Sacred Heart’s men’s team will be on the road to meet Rutgers at 7 p.m. The Pioneers lost five of their top six scorers, so Sacred Heart will head into the season with eight freshmen on its 15-player roster. If there was a team that needed every second of practice time possible, it would be Anthony Latina’s Pioneers. However, in early November, positive tests led to a 14-day pause. There will be plenty of questions to be answered, and facing nationally ranked Rutgers on the road isn’t exactly the definition of easing into a season. However, considering the alternatives, Sacred Heart and every other team that will hit the court can be thankful that there are games to be played, memories to be made.
Central Connecticut State men’s team, coached by former UConn star Donyell Marshall, will play at UConn at 8 p.m.
Not every state program will be as fortunate. There will be no basketball games at Yale or at any other Ivy League program this season, and UConn’s women’s basketball powerhouse had to postpone or cancel its first four games. A quick visit to the Hockey East official site will shows that four of the last six press releases posted are schedule revisions. The story has been the same in the college football world.
The MAAC announced that the Fairfield-Manhattan games on Feb. 5-6 will air on ESPNU. The men’s game is set for Feb. 5 at 9 p.m. with the women’s game at 10 a.m. on Feb. 6. Both the Fairfield and Quinnipiac men’s programs could have additional games on ESPNU. One of the five MAAC games on Jan. 22, Feb. 19 and March 5 will be chosen as MAAC wild-card games. Fairfield hosts Canisius and Quinnipiac is home against Rider on Jan. 22; Fairfield and Quinnipiac will play at Monmouth and Siena on Feb. 19, while Quinnipiac is at Fairfield on March 5.