Why UConn couldn’t field a team vs. 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 toward 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 before Marquette, but was on a minutes restriction for that game and played just 13. He was due to gradually increase his minutes, 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 Sanogo may have been deemed an unhealthy player.

And 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 COVIDpositive 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 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.