Penn State Men’s Basketball Announces 2nd Straight Cancellation due to Coronavirus

Story posted December 17, 2021 in CommRadio, Sports by Austin Groft

Fans are back in stadiums across the nation and huge upsets are happening only in December, college basketball is finally back to normal — or is it?

On Thursday, Penn State announced its matchup against VCU has been canceled due to positive coronavirus results within the Nittany Lion program.

Fast forward to Friday, and the team made another announcement that the home matchup on Wednesday Dec. 22 against Quinnipiac has also been canceled for the same reasons.

The program said the following statement in its press release regarding the cancellation of the two games:

“The health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and the broader community are of the utmost importance. Therefore, as part of the protocols established by the Big Ten Conference and Penn State Athletics medical staff, and in consultation with University, local and national officials and guidelines, individuals with a positive test have been put into isolation. In addition to isolation, contact tracing procedures have been implemented, which includes testing for those individuals who might have been exposed.”

Penn State’s next scheduled game is set for December 29 at home against 2-8 Delaware State. This will be Penn State’s first game in over two weeks, with its last game being against Michigan State dating back to Dec. 11.

This is another setback for first-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry. First, he was without transfer forward Greg Lee, who averaged 13 points and 7.2 rebounds last year at Western Michigan.

Now, he is dealing with a huge pause during the season. Thankfully for Shrewsberry, this is happening during non-conference play before his squad gets into the thick of the Big Ten gauntlet.

Despite the setbacks, Shrewsberry said earlier in the year how there will be bumps in the road throughout the season, but it all depends on how his team responds.

“Win anyway, no matter who is out there. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. The rest of the Big Ten won’t be sorry for us, so we can’t be sorry for ourselves,” Shrewsberry said.

The games against VCU and Quinnipiac will not be rescheduled, and both games would have been of great value for the team as they have a combined 13-8 record.

VCU would have been a solid non-conference opponent to battle against with a big win over Syracuse and losing by only 8 points to now-No. 1 Baylor. The Rams always fight hard, especially last year when they came to the Bryce Jordan Center and came up short after a game winning Myles Dread 3-pointer.

Up to this point Penn State is 5-5 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten.


Austin Groft is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email atg5271@psu.edu.