Louisville basketball facing Covid issues for second time

Louisville basketball was just getting settled in Syracuse where they were to play the Orange on Wednesday night. That is until the team was hit with a positive Covid test.

The ACC announced this morning that there was a positive test within the program and subsequent quarantining and contact tracing would be ensuing. Interestingly enough, the team was in Syracuse at the time of the notification. So it’s not known if the team will be traveling back to Louisville or staying in New York at this time.

This is the second time the team has been hit with Covid

In early December, the program faced their first Covid positive. That resulted in an 18-day pause for the program and Chris Mack said that about “90 percent” of the team had Covid-19 at one point or another during the team’s pause.

If Louisville were to go on another 18-day pause, the team would have to postpone at least six games in that span including the one that was scheduled for Wednesday night against Syracuse.

The Cardinals only had nine games left on the schedule as of today with games against Boston College and NC State having no postponement dates scheduled yet; that would make 11.

There is only about a month remaining on the schedule before the ACC tournament is scheduled for Mar. 9. If the program is forced into another long quarantine, it’s going to be challenging for them to squeeze every game into the final month.

This was to be a massive stretch for the team

Louisville basketball is currently scheduled to play two ranked teams in the next four games against Virginia and Virginia Tech. The games against Syracuse would also be largely important during this stretch as the Orange battle for a spot in the NCAA tournament.

The Cardinals themselves are not a lock to compete in March Madness. While they have positioned themselves decently, a rough stretch of losses or struggles could put them on the outside looking in.

Now with uncertainty surrounding the length of any possible pause of team activities, the point of resume will be massively important for Louisville to not show signs of too much rust or fall behind in competitiveness.

Louisville basketball faces a pause at the most difficult of times. We hope for the speedy recovery for all of those affected by the virus.