Sacred Heart announces COVID case, cancels with St. John’s basketball

More changes have been made regarding the St. John’s basketball slate for 2020-21.

It was announced on Friday that there is a confirmed positive COVID case within the Sacred Heart men’s basketball team and they will shut down for the next two weeks, canceling its matchup with the St. John’s basketball program.

The crazy year that is 2020 provides a new twist for the Red Storm (2-0) as Sacred Heart (0-1) will shut down their program for two weeks after a member of their team tested positive for COVID-19.

The news of the shutdown was reported by Dan Gardella of The Spectrum.

St. John’s was scheduled to take on the Pioneers on December 6 at Carnesecca Arena. Instead, a spot in the non-conference schedule has just opened up for the St. John’s basketball program.

Originally, the Johnnies were set to have six non-conference games before they open up conference play against the Connecticut Huskies on December 11, but will now have only five non-league games unless they can find another opponent.

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If the Red Storm are unable to find an opponent to replace that spot, then after they head to Lubbock, Texas to take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders they’ll have five days off before they take on Fordham on December 8.

Who could St. John’s basketball use to fill that slot?

However, there are some possible options for St. John’s to find a new opponent to replace the Pioneers’ spot.

The Stony Brook Seawolves could be one option as they just had their opening game of the season against Sacred Heart eliminated on December 1 due to last night’s announcement.

Stony Brook open the season on December 4 against Fairfield before having five days off before taking on Hofstra.

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The break in the games could leave an opening for the Red Storm to schedule this matchup on December 6 and not have to move any dates around.

Also, an interesting coincidence was that just after the Sacred Heart announcement, Notre Dame men’s basketball head coach Mike Brey made a public plea on Twitter stating that his program is looking for an opponent on December 4 or 5.

This could provide St. John’s with another power-conference opponent and a game that would help out with its resume, if they are hovering around the NCAA Tournament picture in late February.

However, it is a bit of a longer shot due to the travel necessary.

Regardless, St. John’s will head to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut to take on Boston College (1-1) on Monday night at 6:00pm EST (FS1) in their third game of the season.