The Gators will have to wait a bit to begin its SEC slate this season, as its conference opener against the Ole Miss Rebels, which was scheduled for Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. EST in Oxford, has been postponed due to COVID-19 issues within Florida’s basketball program.
No makeup date has been determined, and UF will look to make its SEC debut against Alabama on Jan. 5.
The decision to postpone comes just days after the league reversed course in terms of its COVID-19 policy. Under the previous policy, the inability to compete in an SEC game due to COVID would result in a forfeit for the offending team. However, with the highly contagious Omicron variant spreading quickly throughout the United States, those rules were loosened to allow for a postponement or declaring the game a no-contest if rescheduling is not an option.
It’s unclear how many UF players are impacted by the virus, but the Gators were without starting guard Myreon Jones in the final non-conference game against Stony Brook on Wednesday afternoon as he was placed in the health and safety protocol.
After COVID-19 impacted Florida heavily during SEC play last season, the Gators will hope to avoid a repeat of those frustrations this season.
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