Yahoo Finance No. 5 Texas at Kentucky canceled due to coronavirus cases at UK
Kentucky is not hosting No. 5 Texas on Saturday.
The SEC announced Friday that the game had been canceled “due to a combination of positive testing, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Kentucky basketball program.” Kentucky said in a subsequent statement that the basketball program would be halting activities for 48 hours because of the positive cases.
The Wildcats were set to host the Longhorns as part of the annual Big 12/SEC Challenge between the two conferences.
The game was also one of the headliners for the ESPN-based event. It was scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN after No. 15 Kansas and No. 18 Tennessee. The annual cross-conference Saturday features all 10 Big 12 teams playing SEC opponents.
Kentucky’s chance for a big win
It’s been a slog of a season for Kentucky. The Wildcats are just 5-10 overall and 4-4 in the SEC. Saturday’s game was a chance for Kentucky to get a marquee non-conference win in an attempt to rebound over the second half of the season to make the NCAA tournament.
Kentucky won its first three SEC games but has gone 1-4 since. The Wildcats lost 70-59 to No. 9 Alabama on Tuesday.
That Alabama game was the first of four games scheduled against ranked opponents. Kentucky plays at No. 12 Missouri on Feb. 2 and then plays Tennessee on Feb. 6. Both of those games could be in danger of getting postponed depending on the severity of the coronavirus outbreak at Kentucky.
Texas, meanwhile, was heading to Lexington after a loss to No. 24 Oklahoma. The Longhorns are set to play No. 2 Baylor on Tuesday.
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