Missouri Tigers basketball won’t have full roster available against No. 15 Alabama
The Missouri Tigers men’s basketball team will be shorthanded against No. 15 Alabama (11-3, 2-0 SEC) at Mizzou Arena on Saturday.
Mizzou (6-7, 0-1 SEC), which hasn’t seen game action since a Dec. 29 blowout loss at then-No. 18 Kentucky, will only have nine of 12 players available for the second SEC game of the season because of COVID-19 protocols. MU coach Cuonzo Martin declined to share specifics on who will be out.
“It’s tough from the standpoint it’s not normal, but it is in our society now,” Martin said on Friday. “It’s hard for me to make an excuse about it, especially if you have enough to play. And I’m excited to really play, our guys are excited to play.”
The Tigers have been heavily affected by COVID-19 issues as of late. Martin found out he tested positive on Dec. 27 and couldn’t travel for the Kentucky game, leaving assistant Cornell Mann as acting head coach.
Once the team returned from that trip and was tested again last weekend, positive results and contact tracing among players rendered Mizzou below the SEC’s threshold of seven players, forcing the postponement of a home contest against Mississippi State scheduled for this past Wednesday.
Missouri hasn’t been able to play five-on-five in limited practices this week. The Tigers went through game scenarios with just three or four players on either side, with some players out of position and coaches filling in at certain spots. They also did a lot of film study.
Saturday’s game, which airs on the SEC Network at 2:30 p.m., was already expected to be quite the challenge for Missouri, which has lost three of its last four — by a margin of 29.7 points. The Tigers have an even more arduous task in front of them now.
