Minnesota/Illinois Men's Basketball Game Postponed to Jan. 4 at 6 p.m.

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Per U of MN press release ->

MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota/Illinois men’s basketball game originally scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 2 at 5 p.m., has now been postponed to Jan. 4 at 6 p.m., at Williams Arena. The game will be televised on FS1. The postponement is due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols within the Illinois program.

This follows the current Big Ten guidelines due to COVID-19 policies and procedures announced earlier this week: If a team or teams is/are unable to participate in a scheduled Conference competition due to COVID-19, and as a result the competition is unable to occur on the calendar day on which it is scheduled, the competition will not automatically be considered a forfeiture. Upon review and approval by the Conference office, in consultation with the participating institutions and the Big Ten Chief Medical Officer, Dr. James Borchers, the competition may be rescheduled, or declared a no contest or a forfeiture. The Conference office will be responsible for rescheduling any conference competition postponed due to COVID-19.

The number of competitors available – i.e. seven scholarship student-athletes for women’s and men’s basketball – and the availability of at least one countable coach factor into the decision-making process. A team that is below the number may still decide to compete if deemed safe by appropriate medical personnel (i.e. the decision to postpone a competition will not be automatic even if a team is below the number).

Minnesota last played at home, Dec. 22 against Green Bay. The Gophers' Dec. 29 game was canceled due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols within the Alcorn State program. The Illini's last contest was also Dec. 22 against Missouri. Illinois was scheduled to play Dec. 29, but were forced to cancel due to COVID-19 protocols within their own program. Illinois has indicated it does not meet the seven scholarship student-athletes cleared for Sunday's competition.

Tickets for the initial game date will be accepted for Tuesday's matchup. Ticket holders that are unable to attend the rescheduled game can exchange their tickets for any other 2021-22 regular season men's basketball game in zone 3 or 4 at Williams Arena. All exchanges are subject to availability. Individuals must notify the Gopher Athletics Ticket Office via email at [email protected] by 12pm CST on Tuesday, January 4 if they would like to exchange their tickets for a different game.
 



Nice. Glad it's getting played. Doesn't really affect us getting ready for the next game since it's the following Saturday. Worried about the long layoff though. Which we would have had the tune up against Alcorn State.
 



A game should only be rescheduled if both teams are affected by Covid, not one. If only one, it should be a forfeit.
 



GopherCountry said:
A game should only be rescheduled if both teams are affected by Covid, not one. If only one, it should be a forfeit.
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Well the conference is trying to make money and play games so…

Why don’t we just play no games and declare no contests all year?
 






I am glad they are still playing obviously, but if this allows Illinois to get players back on the floor they would not have otherwise had available for Sunday, this postponement is a clear advantage to Illinois.
 




Call me crazy, but with both teams being idle for nearly two weeks leading up to this game, I like our chances for two reasons:

1. @ the barn
2. Our veteran roster
 

GopherBlood666 said:
I am glad they are still playing obviously, but if this allows Illinois to get players back on the floor they would not have otherwise had available for Sunday, this postponement is a clear advantage to Illinois.
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A team having their players available, oh heavens no.
 

Chicago Gophers said:
A team having their players available, oh heavens no.
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If this was to allow a player to come back from a sprained ankle, I can't believe you have the same take. The games are scheduled when they are scheduled and the chips fall where they may beyond that. Are you denying this gives Illinois an advantage? I'm not saying it's an advantage the Gophers can't overcome, just saying it's an advantage nonetheless.
 


Don't kid yourself. TV is calling a lot of the shots here.

Forfeit - no game on TV
cancellation - no game on TV

Reschedule - game on TV!

Considering how much money the TV networks funnel into the conferences, I strongly suspect that the TV folks are leaning on the conferences to reschedule games whenever possible and provide the TV networks with the programming they want.

As far as the advantage/no advantage argument -
it's easy to say "let's play the game" when the other team is short-handed.

If the Gophers had 2 or 3 players out with covid, would you still be arguing that the game should be played on the originally scheduled date?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Don't kid yourself. TV is calling a lot of the shots here.

Forfeit - no game on TV
cancellation - no game on TV

Reschedule - game on TV!

Considering how much money the TV networks funnel into the conferences, I strongly suspect that the TV folks are leaning on the conferences to reschedule games whenever possible and provide the TV networks with the programming they want.

As far as the advantage/no advantage argument -
it's easy to say "let's play the game" when the other team is short-handed.

If the Gophers had 2 or 3 players out with covid, would you still be arguing that the game should be played on the originally scheduled date?
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Agreed on your last statement, which is why I am not able to get riled up about moving the game. An already thin Gopher line-up, having a few players out would really hamstring them.

Odds are that it's going to happen sooner or later.
 

GopherBlood666 said:
I am glad they are still playing obviously, but if this allows Illinois to get players back on the floor they would not have otherwise had available for Sunday, this postponement is a clear advantage to Illinois.
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Are you saying they shouldn’t postpone the game? What if the tables were turned and the postponement would allow a sick Battle and Willis to play?
 

GopherBlood666 said:
I am glad they are still playing obviously, but if this allows Illinois to get players back on the floor they would not have otherwise had available for Sunday, this postponement is a clear advantage to Illinois.
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Why wouldn't you want them at full strength?
 

matt said:
Are you saying they shouldn’t postpone the game? What if the tables were turned and the postponement would allow a sick Battle and Willis to play?
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I would prefer a postponement then cancellation in every situation no doubt. If the tables were turned, I would be happy as a Gopher fan obviously as it would be giving them access to a player they would not have otherwise had AKA an advantage from the originally scheduled game. I am only pointing out that in this situation Illinois is gaining an advantage.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
Don't kid yourself. TV is calling a lot of the shots here.

Forfeit - no game on TV
cancellation - no game on TV

Reschedule - game on TV!

Considering how much money the TV networks funnel into the conferences, I strongly suspect that the TV folks are leaning on the conferences to reschedule games whenever possible and provide the TV networks with the programming they want.

As far as the advantage/no advantage argument -
it's easy to say "let's play the game" when the other team is short-handed.

If the Gophers had 2 or 3 players out with covid, would you still be arguing that the game should be played on the originally scheduled date?
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Assuming this was directed at me. If the Gophers had 2-3 players out due to Covid, it would suck but it would be what it was. I would be pissed if the reason was simply a positive test with no symptoms. Then the arbitrary health and safety rules would be my gripe, but if those players were legitimately not able to see the floor due to sickness, that's just the way it goes. Sucks when your best player has a season ending injury too, but it happens and teams deal with it every year. Games have never been postponed to get injured players back on the floor. Having the flu or similar illness has always been treated like another injury. The player misses the game when they are unhealthy, returns when they are healthy. This board has consistently repeated the sentiment that injuries are no excuse.
 


This is ridiculous! I cannot believe the NCAA is doing this!!! I know it's a touchy subject but I am tired of staying silent about all of this! I am tired of people behaving like scared sheep!!!!!!!

The fact that these teams are purposely getting themselves infected and or are staging fake positive tests just to avoid playing the absolute UNIT that is our basketball program is disgusting!

I know every team in the NCAA has nightmares about playing against Johnson's Golden Soul Killers but rules are rules man. If you didn't want to ever get beat you should not have become a college ballplayer or coach!

Someone needs to step in and stop these teams from hiding from us. I bit my tongue when we threw the one game to help build other teams' confidence but I am sick and tired of living like this! It is unacceptable we are being punished for being astronomically better than any other college basketball team in history!
 


Obi-Wan Okogie said:
This is ridiculous! I cannot believe the NCAA is doing this!!! I know it's a touchy subject but I am tired of staying silent about all of this! I am tired of people behaving like scared sheep!!!!!!!

The fact that these teams are purposely getting themselves infected and or are staging fake positive tests just to avoid playing the absolute UNIT that is our basketball program is disgusting!

I know every team in the NCAA has nightmares about playing against Johnson's Golden Soul Killers but rules are rules man. If you didn't want to ever get beat you should not have become a college ballplayer or coach!

Someone needs to step in and stop these teams from hiding from us. I bit my tongue when we threw the one game to help build other teams' confidence but I am sick and tired of living like this! It is unacceptable we are being punished for being astronomically better than any other college basketball team in history!
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I wish you would saved this until tomorrow, would have won post of the year on the first day : ) For some reason Johnson's Golden Soul Killers is something that really resonates.
 

GopherBlood666 said:
cool, I like to watch games when they are scheduled
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It is scheduled, just a different day.
GopherBlood666 said:
I am glad they are still playing obviously, but if this allows Illinois to get players back on the floor they would not have otherwise had available for Sunday, this postponement is a clear advantage to Illinois.
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Here is a paraphrased update to the Covid rules for the BIG (following similarly to most other power conferences):

Per the Big Ten’s revised rules, if a team cannot meet the threshold for what the conference deems safe competition (seven available scholarship players and at least one available countable coach), the game will be rescheduled. If it cannot be rescheduled, it will be declared a no-contest. Only in cases where a team cannot reasonably demonstrate why it cannot meet that safety threshold will the game be considered a forfeit. There remains wiggle room within those definitions, which would require schools to demonstrate an inability to compete safely to the conference directly.

Any advantage Illinois had sans Covid would be at minimum the same as if it never happened. If anything, depending on how ill the players are/were, it could be a disadvantage to Illinois if the players clear protocol but aren't physically 100%.

If I were Coach Johnson, I'd be looking to start the game up-tempo and run the piss out of the Illini to gauge how rusty or not they are.
 

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