Two more Storm games postponed
College basketball is returning from the Christmas break with a notably lighter schedule after the pandemic caused several games to get canceled or postponed, including St. John’s games this week against Marquette and Georgetown.
Xavier’s Jan. 4 game at Georgetown also has been called off.
Duke’s game Wednesday night at Clemson was postponed. Other ACC matchups that won’t take place as scheduled Wednesday include Florida State at Boston College and Virginia Tech North Carolina. The Georgia Tech-Syracuse game scheduled for Wednesday was postponed earlier.
Illinois also had its game on Wednesday against Florida A&M wiped out because of positive tests within the Illini’s program.
BAYLOR ON TOP
Baylor remained No. 1 for the third straight week in the men’s college basketball poll released Monday, receiving all 61 firstplace votes from a national media panel. The Bears (11-0) had 60 first-place votes a week ago and were a unanimous selection this week with a blowout victory over Alcorn State and Arizona’s loss to Tennessee.
SOUTH CAROLINA STILL NO. 1
South Carolina remained the unanimous No. 1 in women’s basketball, receiving all 30 first-place votes from a national media panel Monday. The Gamecocks staved off another challenge from a top opponent, rallying to beat No. 2 Stanford, 65-61, last Tuesday. Coach Dawn Staley’s squad has beat five top-10 teams this season, including the No. 2 team twice.
NHL BACK TONIGHT
After shutting down for a week, the NHL resumes play tonight with three games on the schedule amid hopes that its extended holiday break caused by a rash of positive COVID-19 test results will set the stage for the league to complete an already upended season.
The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning won’t have either of its top goaltenders or their coach for its game against Montreal. Coach Peter DeBoer is out for the
Vegas Golden Knights’ game at Los Angeles. And there are more disquieting signs.
The league on Monday postponed three more games slated for later this week to bring the total to 70 this season. Chicago’s game at Winnipeg scheduled for Wednesday and a home-andhome series Wednesday and Friday between Dallas and Colorado
are the latest to be moved because of coronavirus concerns.
As of now, the Winter Classic between the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild is still scheduled to be played at Target Field in Minneapolis on Saturday night in keeping with the league’s New Year’s Day tradition.
“We’re just happy to be playing hockey,” Blues defenseman Justin Faulk said. “I think we should be playing.”
In an effort to do just that, the league brought back “taxi squads,” a feature from the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Each team will be able to keep up to six players on the taxi squad and can make more emergency recalls from the minors to make sure there are 18 skaters and two goaltenders available for every game.
“It’s what needed to happen,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “With obviously what’s going on, you’re going to have a lot of these issues, so that’s one way to take care of it have enough players around that you can keep playing. I think at the end of the day that’s what we’re trying to do: have a system in place that you can get guys into the lineup quickly.”