The Nebraska women’s basketball game scheduled for 1 p.m. CT Saturday against Michigan State has been called off, the school confirmed.
In a brief statement, the program said the game “will not be played based on the advice from institutional medical staffs.” The official announcement came 15 minutes before the scheduled start time.
Nebraska does not play again until next Saturday, when it hits the road to face Iowa on March 6. The Spartans are also free until next Saturday.
“We will move forward and hopefully have a chance to reschedule our game with Michigan State, but if not, we will get ready for our final regular-season game at Iowa on Saturday,” coach Amy Williams said in a statement released later in the day.
Minnesota—who Nebraska played on Wednesday—has since had positive COVID-19 tests in its program and on Saturday called off its Sunday game against Michigan. Michigan State has concerns stemming from that, but the MSU athletic department has also been hit recently by the virus in its volleyball and women’s gymnastics programs.
The Gopher-Wolverine game has been canceled rather than postponed and declared a no-contest “due to the limited time remaining in the regular season,” the program said in a tweet.
The Big Ten Tournament is scheduled to begin on March 9 in Indianapolis. Nebraska (11-10, 9-9 Big Ten) is looking for as many wins as it can get as it hopes to keep its hopes for an NCAA Tournament bid alive.
Nebraska will still hold its Senior Day ceremony—which can be viewed here. Center Kate Cain and former Husker wing Taylor Kissinger will be honored. Kissinger was forced to medically retire before the season, though still managed to earn program records for game, season, and career 3-point shooting percentage. Cain is Nebraska’s all-time leader in blocked shots. This was to be NU’s last home game of the regular season.
“Obviously, we are disappointed that we were not able to play our final home game of the season at Pinnacle Bank Arena today,” Williams said. “All of our players and coaches were excited to play and hopefully send Kate Cain off with one more home win on Senior Day. While we are extremely disappointed that we were not able to compete today, our post-game ceremony honoring Kate and Taylor Kissinger was still a fitting tribute to their careers and their time here as Huskers. We were glad we were able to recognize their contributions to our program.”
It’s the first game that has been called off because of the virus this year for the program.
