Ohio State basketball cancels third straight game

We thought it was over. Chris Holtmann thought it was over. He even said that the Ohio State basketball program was set to return on Tuesday night. Apparently, we now have to wait a little longer to watch the Buckeyes play another basketball game.

Tuesday night’s game against New Orleans has been canceled due to the Buckeyes’ ongoing struggles with COVID. This is now the third consecutive game that Ohio State has canceled because of issues with the virus among the team. It’s starting to become alarming.

It’s alarming for a number of reasons. First off, will the team be healthy long-term? If the team has had multiple players with symptoms for this long, how will they be when it’s finally over? Secondly, will there be any rust when they do finally play again? If so, how bad will it be?

I’m mostly concerned about the resume at the end of the season. If the Ohio State basketball program has played a lot fewer games than some other programs, it could affect their seeding in the NCAA Tournament. If they have a comparable resume to another team, the other team would likely get the nod.

With this game being canceled, the next game listed on the Buckeyes’ schedule is Sunday against Nebraska. That would make it just over three weeks since the last time this team has played a game. Now they have to restart their season during Big Ten play? That’s absolutely brutal.

I wish I could say the Buckeyes are definitely returning on Sunday, but I can’t. I thought they were playing on Tuesday for sure. Nothing is an absolute certainty as long as this virus is floating around. I guess we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens the rest of the week.