The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
It’s a numbers game
How the Huskies couldn’t field a team against Xavier
The Big East revised its COVID-19 policy late last week to change games that are unable to be played from forfeits to simply cancellations, with hopes of the games being rescheduled.
But perhaps the biggest change in the league’s policy from a year ago remained intact. Unlike last season, when the Big East deemed whether games would be canceled, that decision now rests with the member schools. If a school tells the league it can’t field a roster to play a game under the new policy, the game won’t be played.
That explains, for instance, why on Monday Georgetown canceled its upcoming games for Saturday and on Jan. 4, yet UConn, which canceled its slated Tuesday night game at Xavier, still hasn’t officially canceled its New Year’s Day bout on Saturday in Hartford against Butler — at least not yet.
Quite simply, Georgetown has informed the Big East that it doesn’t believe it will have seven healthy players on Saturday or Jan 4. UConn (or Butler) has not yet told that to the league, though it would seem highly unlikely the game would be played.
The Big East’s COVID-19 cancellation policy is pretty succinct: Games are canceled if a school has fewer than seven scholarship players and one countable coach available for a game.
Pretty straightforward and easy to understand. And yet, like most things with this pandemic, chaos and multiple questions seem to have arisen since the new policy was instituted.
How are teams, ostensibly with 13 scholarship players and sometimes more (thanks to the extra year of eligibility afforded
to all players from last season), unable to field seven healthy players? That’s a lot of players coming down with COVID.
Well, yeah. Schools aren’t allowed to reveal who or how many players and/or coaches have tested positive. We know Dan Hurley tested positive and is in isolation at home with relatively mild symptoms that he was still feeling as of Monday night.
According to an NCAA source, UConn’s number of positive players is far more than just one or two. Multiple players tested positive since the players returned to campus on Christmas Day through Monday.
And those aren’t the only players who don’t count towards the seven healthy ones needed to field a team. For one, walk-ons are out; the new rule specifically states a team needs seven scholarship players. So that rules out UConn’s Matt Garry and Drew Hurley as available players
Players who are redshirting are also out.
“If a school is going to redshirt a player, they would never be forced to play that player just to make the seven,” a Big East official told Hearst Connecticut Media.
So, that rules out Corey Floyd Jr.
Then there are players who are out with other injuries — either for the entire season or for an extended period of time. Such players wouldn’t count towards the “healthy seven.”
So what about Adama Sanogo, who missed four straight games with an abdominal injury before returning for a Dec. 21 win at Marquette? The sophomore center was averaging more than 26 minutes per game prior to Marquette, but was on a minutes-restriction for that game and played just 13. He was due to gradually increase his minutes with each game, but logic would dictate he probably wouldn’t have played more than 15-18 against Xavier.
While Big East policy specifies that all available players should be counted as healthy, it appears that Sanogo may have been deemed an unhealthy player.
And so, that’s how a 15-man roster gets down to less than seven healthy players: Two walk-ons, one redshirt, one player on a minutes-restriction, and suddenly all it takes is five COVID-positive players to force a cancellation. Still a pretty big number, but hardly the 8-10 that may have danced through some peoples’ minds.
All of UConn’s players and coaches are doublevaccinated, and many have also received their booster shots. They weren’t forced to, and some did so quicker than others, but ultimately all complied in an effort to, in theory, make this season go smoother.
The league doesn’t punish teams for having unvaccinated players, though obviously a school like Seton Hall, which reportedly had several unvaccinated players at least a couple of weeks ago, would seem to be more prone to cancellations. Sure enough, the Pirates have already had three Big East games canceled and haven’t played since Dec. 12.
While UConn has had just one game canceled so far (and another likely on Saturday), the Huskies’ vaccination status could get them back to playing quicker than other teams. Could they make up the Xavier game next week, with the Musketeers’ Jan. 4 game with Georgetown already canceled and UConn in the midst of a week-long bye? Doubtful. The Big East is trying to reschedule its games in chronological order of their cancellations, meaning the Seton Hall, DePaul, St. John’s and Georgetown games canceled over the past couple of weeks would likely be the first to be made up.
KARABAN IS ON HIS WAY?
UConn’s recent COVID disruption throws a minor wrench in the plans for Class of 2022 commit Alex Karaban to potentially leave IMG Academy and enroll at Storrs early. That could still happen within the next week or so, though it’s not a certainty yet. The staff began talking about the possibility of enrolling early with Karaban as far back as the summer, and the 6foot-7 forward told Hearst Connecticut Media last month that it was “definitely a possibility.”
It’s still likely that Karaban, who is back at his Massachusetts home on a long winter break from IMG, enrolls early at UConn. If he does, he would not play this season but rather practice with the team and hope to get stronger and more prepared as a redshirt freshman next season.