Penn State Men's Basketball Pauses Team Activities Because of COVID-19

The Nittany Lions postpone two more games after announcing positive tests among Tier 1 personnel.

Penn State paused all men's basketball team activities Wednesday and postponed two more games because of positive test results for COVID-19 within the program.

Penn State's home games against Michigan on Jan. 9 and Rutgers on Jan. 12 are postponed, the athletic department announced. Four Nittany Lions games have been postponed since Jan. 3. The Lions' non-conference opener against Drexel in November also was postponed and is unlikely to be rescheduled.

Penn State said it has not determined the status of games beyond Jan. 12. The team's next scheduled game is Jan. 17 at Purdue.

"The health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and the broader community are of the utmost importance," a statement from the athletic department said. "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 quarantine and testing for those individuals who might have been exposed, even if asymptomatic."

On Tuesday, Wisconsin coach Greg Gard told reporters that he was uncomfortable visiting Penn State for a scheduled game Jan. 3. That game ultimately was postponed after, Gard said, Penn State informed Wisconsin the day before that two players had tested positive.

“I really looked at it from a standpoint of being a parent myself that, if we walked into a known risky situation and we had something go wrong and we got the virus transmitted somehow — hopefully not, but if that happened — I couldn’t honestly look at my players and their parents and say I’m confident in the environment we’re walking into,” Gard said, according to Madison.com. "I just couldn’t come to that [conclusion], and no one around me could come to that conclusion, either. I got no rebuttal from anywhere that we should go forward and play.”

Penn State will be in a difficult position to reschedule four games, including one road contest at Ohio State, prior to the regular-season finale March 7 at Maryland. The Lions already were scheduled to play three games from Jan. 17-23.

They do have a week off before their next scheduled game Jan. 30 at Nebraska. Penn State has seven games scheduled for February.

The men's basketball team is Penn State's first to publicly acknowledge an in-season pause of activities since athletes from multiple programs returned to campus last June. In September, several Penn State teams paused workouts after 48 athletes tested positive for COVID-19.

Earlier Wednesday, Penn State announced its weekly COVID-19 testing results. For the period of Dec. 26-Jan. 1, the athletic department administered 513 tests of athletes with four positive test results. Penn State does not announce teams impacted by positive test results.

Get the latest Penn State news by joining the community. Click "Follow" at the top right of our AllPennState page. Mobile users click the notification bell. And please follow AllPennState on Twitter @MarkWogenrich.