Texas Basketball: SEC/Big 12 Challenge vs. UK canceled due to COVID-19
On Jan. 31, the SEC/Big 12 Challenge is set to begin with a number of headlining games around the conference. But one of the most intriguing was set to be when No. 5 ranked Texas basketball hit the road to travel to face legendary head coach John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena. Texas and Kentucky are in very different places at this point of the regular season than each was expected to be during the preseason.
Yet, it is a shame that we won’t get to see the Longhorns and Wildcats matchup in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Jan. 31. An ESPN report confirmed on the early afternoon of Jan. 30 that the meeting between Texas and Kentucky originally scheduled for Jan. 31 in Lexington will be canceled in the wake of novel coronavirus related issues on the Wildcats side.
What happened to Texas basketball vs. Kentucky
Kentucky will reportedly pause all basketball activities for 48 hours while getting their COVID-19 situation under control. It is “due to a combination of positive testing, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the program” that caused this meeting between Texas and Kentucky to get canceled in the first place.
It would’ve been interesting to see how the sliding Wildcats could’ve taken on a top five team in the Longhorns at this point of the regular season slate. Texas isn’t headed in the right direction right now either, losing two of their last three games.
Meanwhile, Kentucky is off to a bad start this season, posting a record of 5-10 (4-4 SEC) through their first 15 games. They have improved markedly since the start of SEC play, but a .500 record in the conference slate is still well above the usual expectations of Kentucky hoops fans.
Smart and the Longhorns will now have to wait until the night of Feb. 2 for their next game action, which is set to come against the rolling No. 2 ranked Baylor Bears at home at the Frank Erwin Center. This now makes it three games that were either pushed back or canceled entirely for the Longhorns in the wake of different COVID-19 related issues.
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Texas will now carry a record of 11-3 (5-2 Big 12) into their meeting with the talented Bears and head coach Scott Drew come next week. Their last game resulted in a tough one point loss at the hands of the rival Oklahoma Sooners back on Jan. 26, in the Red River Rivalry game on the hardwood.