The Mid-American Conference on Saturday announced the postponement of Ohio’s next four basketball games. The Bobcats next game is currently slated for Feb. 27, a home game against Buffalo.
According to the MAC’s statement the following games will be postponed.
Feb. 6: @ Bowling Green
Feb. 9: vs Akron
Feb. 13: @ Western Michigan
Feb. 16 vs Central Michigan
The MAC announced on Friday the reason Ohio and Bowling Green’s game was postponed was COVID-19 contact tracing issues with the Bobcats. The postponements on Saturday signify a potential pause to basketball activities for Ohio.
Ohio is not the first MAC team to miss multiple games due to contact tracing. Miami, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan have all had their shares of struggles this season, but Ohio’s could be potentially happening at the worse possible time.
The Bobcats (11-6, 7-4 MAC) are currently one of the hottest teams in the conference. A four-game winning streak has Ohio soaring up the MAC rankings and into a potential high seed into the MAC Tournament. Despite the MAC’s language using the word “postponed” to describe the state of Ohio’s games, it doesn’t seem likely that the Bobcats will be able to make up every game it’s missed before the tournament starts on March 11.
Alongside the four games that were postponed on Ohio’s behalf, earlier games in the season such as a Dec. 29 matchup at Miami, a Jan. 5 meeting at Northern Illinois and the Bobcats’ original Feb.6 game against Eastern Michigan were all postponed.
Expecting Ohio to clear COVID protocol, play its two currently unaffected games ( Feb. 27 vs Buffalo and March 2 at Kent State) and makeup seven postponed games is unlikely before the start of the tournament.
