UMass’ stop and start men’s basketball season hit the brakes again Wednesday.
The Minutemen are pausing team activities for the second time this season, the school announced Wednesday, due to contact tracing protocols and an abundance of caution, its release said.
There are currently no positive COVID-19 cases within the program as of Tuesday afternoon, UMass coach Matt McCall said. The team is determining who could have potentially been exposed or who might have been a close contact to someone who was exposed or tested positive.
UMass was scheduled to play VCU at 7 p.m. Wednesday, but that game was postponed. It’s UMass’ eighth postponed or canceled game this year following the initial pause and quarantine in November along with various lost games throughout the season because of the pandemic or political insurrection.
“I think the health and safety of our players and our program and everyone involved is the most important thing and will continue to be the most important thing,” McCall said. “We’re still sorting through some things, our administration and VCU’s administration came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to postpone the game.”
UMass was preparing to practice at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday then travel to Virginia later that night before making the decision to pause at noon.
It’s the second time the Minutemen have needed to shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. UMass previously went on pause Nov. 17 just before its season was supposed to start. That quarantine lasted 18 days. How long the Minutemen will have to stay isolated this time remains to be seen.
“We’re not getting on an airplane [Tuesday] and traveling to Richmond. We will not be playing [Wednesday]. Outside that, it’s a moving target,” McCall said. “We have to get through the next 48 hours to determine if we can play this weekend.”
UMass is next scheduled to face George Mason at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Minutemen have two more games scheduled within the next 14 days: Feb. 3 vs. Fordham and Feb. 6 at Rhode Island. The fate of those will be determined by the contact tracing and subsequent testing.
The UMass team is tested every other day, and if someone is determined a close contact they will be tested every day.
“Who has come into close contact, different things like that, that’s what we’re working through right now,” McCall said.
With UMass entering a pause, Fordham starting its season in late December and Saint Louis coming out of a 34-day break between games, it’s likely the Atlantic 10 will feature large disparities in the number of games played. The league is currently planning to seed all 14 teams by conference winning percentage for its conference tournament, scheduled for a to-be-announced campus site from March 10-14, but other options have been discussed.
The break will give some injured Minutemen opportunities to rest and recover. Sophomore center Tre Mitchell remains day to day with a shoulder injury suffered late against Davidson.
“He got dinged pretty good there. When I walked over to him with our trainer he was in a significant amount of pain,” McCall said. “He’s working with our doctors and our trainers making sure he gets his strength back before he gets back on the floor.”
Junior forward Dibaji Walker’s wrist injury will require offseason surgery before it can fully heal, McCall said. But it’s not something he can hurt more by playing.
“Dibaji’s hurting. He’s battling through,” McCall said. “Baj wants to be out there competing with his team.”
Sophomore Kolton Mitchell remains in concussion protocol, and sophomore Noah Fernandes “dinged” his wrist during two and-one layups early in the first half against Davidson where he hit the floor after making both buckets.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.