‘Cats to miss another game due to COVID-19

Villanova’s latest COVID-19 pause will last a little longer.

The Big East announced that Villanova’s game at Connecticut on Friday, Jan. 15 has been postponed. No makeup date has been announced.

The third-ranked Wildcats (8-1 overall, 3-0 Big East) paused team activities after two players tested positive for the coronavirus on Jan. 4. The UConn game was postponed because the team will not complete its quarantine in time to play the contest.

The team has had no positive tests as of Thursday, according to a Villanova spokesperson.

Villanova’s next scheduled game is at home on Jan. 19 against Seton Hall. That would be the Wildcats’ first game in 27 days. Villanova last played on Dec. 23 when it defeated Marquette, 85-68.

This is the sixth straight game postponed due to COVID-19 and other reasons. The Wildcats were supposed to play St. John’s on Dec. 30 but that game was scratched by mutual agreement so that each team could have a break for the Christmas holiday.

Villanova was supposed to resume play at Xavier on Jan. 2, but that game was moved to Jan. 13 after two members of the Villanova program, including head coach Jay Wright, tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 27. That shut down, the third of the

season for the Wildcats, also forced the postponement of games against DePaul (Jan. 5) and Marquette (Jan. 9). The latest postponement leaves the Wildcats with 17 games to play to reach the full 20

game league schedule.

Fitting those four postponed games into the schedule could be difficult. Villanova has a sixday break between games against Providence (Jan. 23) and Seton Hall (Jan. 30) and a four days between St. John’s (Feb. 23) and Butler (Feb. 28). The regular season is slated to end March 6.