Even without positives, COVID giving SJU sked trouble

St. John’s hasn’t been forced to pause its season yet due to COVID-19, but its schedule has been significantly impacted already.

Sunday’s home game against Sacred Heart and next Tuesday’s contest with Fordham have already been canceled, and now the Johnnies biggest non-conference contest, at No. 17 Texas Tech as part of the first annual Big East/Big 12 Battle, is off after the school opted against traveling to Lubbock, Texas, due to concerns about the high positivity rate of the virus in the area.

“St. John’s top priority is to best ensure ways to minimize risks associated with this global pandemic for both our university community and public health,” the school said in a prepared statement. “The university’s COVID-19 management team in consultation with local health experts came to this decision. In the end and with profound disappointment, the gravity of the concerns outweighed the excitement and opportunity to play this game.”

Lubbock County’s seven-day average of new daily cases per 100,000 people is 165.1, which is more than five times higher than the rate for Queens County, where St. John’s is located, according to Johns Hopkins data. Despite these numbers, Texas Tech is having fans at home games, filling up the United Supermarkets Arena at 25 percent capacity.

In place of Texas Tech, St. John’s will face BYU on Wednesday in the Mohegan Sun bubble, where on Monday it beat Boston College 97-93, the school announced. The Johnnies are in talks with multiple teams to replace Sacred Heart on Sunday and Fordham the following Tuesday at Carnesecca Arena in Queens, sources said.

Athletic director Mike Cragg said losing the game is disappointing — Texas Tech is the lone ranked team on the Johnnies’ ever-changing, non-conference schedule — but he was completely supportive of the decision that was made. He did say he expects St. John’s to travel to Butler on Dec. 14, which would be its first game outside the Northeast.

As for whether the Johnnies will go to Creighton or Marquette, which are in areas that have high positive COVID-19 rates, Cragg declined to address the matter because those games have yet to be scheduled. The Big East has released its conference schedule only for December at this point.

“The university is obviously looking at everything, as they should,” Cragg said. “As the week came, they looked at the facts of what is going on right now.

“I’m trusting of the decisionmakers and the decision-making.”

Eight Big East teams have had to enter a 14-day pause, following an NCAA guideline, but St. John’s has so far steered clear of any positive tests. Prior to leaving for the Mohegan Sun bubble on Saturday, the coaching staff made it clear to the entire roster that if anyone didn’t feel comfortable traveling, they should not get on the bus and the decision would be completely accepted without repercussions. Nobody opted to stay back in Queens.