St. John's-Butler postponed due to COVID-19 issuesprotocols within Red Storm program
Julian Champagnie of St. John's grabs a rebound during the first half of an NCAA men's basketball game against Fordham at Carnesecca Arena on Dec. 5, 2021. Credit: James Escher
The game between St. John’s and Butler that was scheduled to be played Thursday evening at Carnesecca Arena was postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the Red Storm program, the Big East announced on Thursday afternoon.
The conference earlier in the day modified its policy so that games that cannot be played for pandemic-related reasons no longer will be recorded as forfeits. The Big East will seek to reschedule the contest between St. John’s and the Bulldogs.
It also will seek to reschedule Monday’s game between the Red Storm and host Seton Hall, which was called off because of COVID-19 health and safety issues within the Pirates’ program. That contest initially was ruled a forfeit victory for St. John’s.
In the conference’s earlier announcement, it stated that the policy was being changed because of "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."
The new policy calls for games to be postponed when a program has fewer than seven scholarship players and one coach available for a game. It adds that it will attempt to reschedule these games in accordance with conference policies; if a game cannot be rescheduled, it will be "designated as a no contest." Forfeit victories under the old policy no longer will be forfeits.
The St. John’s-Butler game is the fifth Big East contest that could not be played this season. No Big East women’s basketball games have been affected to date.
St. John’s (8-3) has two games scheduled for next week. It is to host Marquette at Carnesecca Arena on Wednesday at 8 p.m. and travel to Georgetown for a noon game on Jan. 1.
Georgetown’s program was announced as being paused from all basketball activities because of COVID-19 issues. Approximately 50 NCAA Division I men’s basketball programs currently are paused.
St. John’s forward Julian Champagnie was forced to miss last Saturday’s loss to Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden because he had entered health and safety protocols after testing positive for COVID-19. Guidance for players who test positive is that they must isolate for 10 days and then test negative and pass cardiac testing before returning to the team.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
