Monday was not a great day if you’re a Xavier basketball fan.
First, the Big East Conference announced that Xavier’s Jan. 4 trip to Washington, D.C., is canceled because of COVID-19 issues within Georgetown’s program.
Then, a few hours after head coach Travis Steele held his pre-game press conference in advance of Tuesday’s home game against Connecticut, the league announced that Tuesday’s game is canceled because of COVID-19 issues within UConn’s program.
The league is referring to these games as “canceled,” but in reality, they’re closer to postponements.
Initially, the Big East instituted a forfeit policy if teams were unable to play due to COVID-19, but the league reversed that decision last week as a “result of the recent sudden and significant increases in the number of COVID-19 cases nationally and within Big East programs due to the spread of the Omicron variant.”
Under the new policy, conference games are now canceled in the event a school has fewer than seven scholarship players and one coach available for a game. The conference office will attempt to reschedule those games and in the event it cannot be rescheduled, the canceled game will be designated as a no contest.
Xavier’s last game was Dec. 21 at Villanova. With its next two scheduled games canceled, the Musketeers are looking at 17 days between games until Jan. 7 when Xavier visits Butler.
Xavier said tickets for the December 28 game against UConn will be honored for the rescheduled date, or they can be exchanged for a future game based on availability. All ticket holders will receive more information via email as it becomes available.
