St. John’s basketball rematch with UConn postponed due to COVID

St. John’s basketball rematch with UConn has been postponed because of COVID-19. 

A fourth St. John’s basketball game has been impacted by COVID-19 and health and safety protocols with the latest coming between the Red Storm (9-7, 3-6 Big East) and the UConn Huskies (8-3, 5-3 Big East).

The Connecticut men’s basketball program announced that it will go on a temporary pause because an official tested positive for COVID-19 following the Huskies’ victory over Butler on Tuesday night.

UConn will not play its two scheduled games this week against Villanova (Thursday) and St. John’s (Sunday)

The Johnnies defeated Danny Hurley’s team on Monday, January 18, 74-70, and were scheduled to play again in a national television window on Sunday afternoon in Queens.

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Butler has not announced it will be taking a temporary paused following the positive test of the official as the Bulldogs are scheduled to play on Friday, January 29 against Xavier, who has not played since January 10 because of COVID-19 positive tests within its program.

UConn has been severely impacted by COVID-19 this season, having to take multiple pauses because of the pandemic and having ten games affected by positive tests.

St. John’s has seen five games postponed because of the virus, one already being rescheduled against the Huskies in Storrs, but now four other games still need to be made-up (at. Butler, at. Villanova, vs. DePaul, vs. UConn).

St. John’s basketball still focused on task at hand

Head coach Mike Anderson and his team are still focused on the game in-front of them as the Johnnies are in Chicago to face the DePaul Blue Demons (3-5, 1-5 Big East) on Wednesday night.

UConn has been dealing with injuries to a handful of its stars, James Bouknight, Andre Jackson, and Akok Akok and perhaps now the short break will allow the Huskies get healthy for the stretch run of the season.

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St. John’s used its final non-conference game last Saturday in a victory over Utah Valley and the only scheduled Big East team to be idle this weekend is Marquette.

It’s unclear whether the Red Storm will see a game scheduled for this weekend because of the postponement but the Golden Eagles defeated the Johnnies in Queens, 73-71, and the two programs are scheduled to play in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 20.

Tipoff between St. John’s and DePaul is 9:00pm EST (Fox Sports 1).