Big 12 postpones K-State men’s basketball game against Iowa State because of COVID-19
The Kansas State men’s basketball team won’t be hosting Iowa State at Bramlage Coliseum on Wednesday. The game has been postponed because the Wildcats don’t have enough active bodies to meet the Big 12’s roster threshold of six scholarship players.
This is the first time the Wildcats men have had a game postponed because of COVID-19 protocols this season.
They barely met the conference’s roster requirements to play their last game against Oklahoma State. K-State took the court with just six scholarship players and two walk-ons in that game and lost 70-54 with four different guards playing at least 39 minutes.
That put the status of K-State’s upcoming games in doubt, and it ended up having to postpone a midweek game against the Cyclones. The Wildcats are next scheduled to be in action on Saturday at Texas. For now, that game remains on. But virus tests will determine if it can be played.
K-State entered the week without starting guard Nijel Pack and reserve forward Seryee Lewis because of COVID-19 protocols, while sophomore forward Antonio Gordon was working to return to the court after missing time because of the virus over the past two weeks.
Those absences were hard to deal with, because the Wildcats are also battling injuries. Kaosi Ezeagu, Luke Kasubke and Montavious Murphy have all been out with various ailments. Ezeagu and Kasubke are expected to return soon, but Murphy will miss the remainder of the season.
It is unclear which additional players were ruled out for Wednesday’s scheduled game against Iowa State, but starting guard DaJuan Gordon sprained his ankle against the Cowboys and Carlton Linguard has been limited for weeks with back pain. So the Wildcats could have lost an extra player to either COVID-19 or injury.
K-State (5-8, 1-4 Big 12) won its first meeting with Iowa State 74-65 earlier this season at Hilton Coliseum. Iowa State (2-7, 0-5 Big 12) is still searching for its first conference victory.
The Big 12 will likely work to reschedule the game at some point between K-State’s final game of the regular season at West Virginia on Feb. 27 and the start of the Big 12 Tournament on March 10.
This is the second men’s basketball game of the week the Big 12 has postponed. The conference also postponed a game between Baylor and West Virginia, scheduled for Tuesday, because of Covid issues within the Mountaineers roster.
The K-State women’s basketball team also had its next game against Oklahoma State postponed, because of Covid issues. That game was originally scheduled for Sunday.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Big 12 postpones K-State men’s basketball game against Iowa State because of COVID-19."