Wichita State’s basketball game at SMU has been postponed again because of COVID-19
For the second time this season, Wichita State’s road trip to Dallas has been postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the SMU program.
The American Athletic Conference announced SMU’s program has been put on pause on Friday morning, two days before the highly anticipated Quadrant 1 road game for a WSU team in desperate need of such wins to improve its NCAA Tournament standing.
Although WSU (12-4, 8-2 AAC) is in second place in the conference and tied with Houston for first place in the loss column, the Shockers are generally regarded outside of the at-large discussion for March Madness. Picking up a road win over SMU (11-4, 7-4 AAC) could have improved WSU’s standing, especially considering WSU (NET of 74) is looking up at SMU (NET of 58) in an important NCAA measure.
But now the Shockers will once again have to wait, as they had a conference game postponed for the fifth time this season. WSU is still waiting for make-up dates against East Carolina and South Florida at home and a road trip to Cincinnati.
After winning 61-60 at Central Florida on Wednesday, WSU might be waiting to play its next game for a while — barring some creativity from the AAC schedule-makers.
WSU’s next two opponents — Memphis (next Thursday) and ECU (next Sunday) — both recently entered quarantine because of positive COVID-19 tests and resulting contact tracing. An official decision has yet to be made on either of those games next week, but more postponements could very well be on the way for the Shockers.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 1:35 PM.
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