Iona basketball was supposed to play Seton Hall at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, but now Rick Pitino and his team are looking for a fill-in.
Seton Hall is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak in its program; as a result, the 16th-ranked Pirates can’t play the Gaels as scheduled. Pitino took to Twitter earlier today to try and secure a new opponent.
“Short notice, but anyone out there interested in playing us at 3:00PM on Saturday in the worlds most famous arena???” Pitino wrote.
As you might imagine, the responses to this tweet are pretty funny. There are some suggesting Iona schedule Kentucky, Pitino’s former employer. The Wildcats were supposed to play Ohio State in Las Vegas, but that game was also canceled due to COVID-19 issues with in the OSU program.
Other people are saying Iona should play the Knicks, while some are offering their men’s league teams to fill the void.
Kentucky-Iona at MSG? https://t.co/EPDpTzOvCD
— Zach Braziller (@NYPost_Brazille) December 16, 2021
Well now that the OSU/UK game is canceled, how about a little Pitino/UK rematch https://t.co/yQvVtZxoyT
— Bobby Reagan (@BarstoolReags) December 16, 2021
@ZagMBB still need a game? https://t.co/k73bZxRQiF
— Sam Pipes (@SamPipes0) December 16, 2021
https://twitter.com/DennisJove/status/1471576096521035776?s=20
Us at @PardonMyTake would love to play. https://t.co/vAVkILlPYm
— Billy Football (@Billyhottakes) December 16, 2021
Iona favored by 1.5 over the Knicks. https://t.co/rrHX9BxxwO
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) December 16, 2021
Wait, who said you could use Hinkle?! https://t.co/4YrTQ8q9cB
— Butler Blue IV (@TheButlerBlue) December 16, 2021
I know some people who can get a run in https://t.co/Pph8I5FZJm
— JP Acosta (@acosta32_jp) December 16, 2021
Kind of crazy we are back to this but I’m afraid it’s not going to be uncommon over the next few months https://t.co/In77f3WLFs
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) December 16, 2021
It will be interesting to see if Iona can find a new team to play on short notice. Duke was able to secure Loyola-Maryland after Cleveland State had to back out of its game against the Blue Devils this Saturday.
On a more serious note, it is definitely disconcerting to see COVID wreaking havoc on rosters all across the sports world right now. Hopefully another stoppage is not forthcoming.
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