FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas' home basketball game against Texas A&M on Saturday has been postponed due to covid-19 protocols.
The Aggies are not able to play because of a combination of positive covid-19 tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Texas A&M basketball program, according to a news release.
"We understand and appreciate the safety protocols to keep everyone safe and heathy during this pandemic," Musselman said. "Also, we know first-hand that you can be as cautious as possible and still miss a game.
"At the same time, we feel badly for our team that they will not have an opportunity to play this weekend. They have worked very hard on and off the court to play as many games as possible this year."
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No make-up date for the game has been determined. The SEC built in an open weekend for teams to make up unplayed games in March.
Musselman said the Razorbacks will not schedule a game against a different opponent Saturday.
"The SEC intentionally left open days at the end of the regular season to allow teams the ability to make up conference games, so we hope to make up this game at that time to give us our 18 league games," Musselman said. "Since the NCAA only allows 27 total games for this regular season, we will not be able to schedule another game for Saturday because we played all nine of our nonconference games."
The game was the first of two scheduled between the programs this year. They are scheduled to play Feb. 20 in College Station, Texas.
It is the second Texas A&M game that has been postponed this week. The Aggies (8-7, 2-6 SEC) were not able to play Vanderbilt on Wednesday.
The Razorbacks have had two games postponed this season, both due to quarantining of other programs. Arkansas had a Dec. 8 game against Tulsa called off and replaced it with a game against Southern the following day.
Arkansas (14-5, 6-4) is scheduled to play again Tuesday at Kentucky (5-11, 4-5) in Rupp Arena.
Missouri beat Kentucky 75-70 on Wednesday night in Mizzou Arena after the teams played a day later than scheduled. The Wildcats’ game against Texas last Saturday in the Big 12/SEC Challenge was canceled because of covid-19 issues within the Kentucky program.
"We will use this as a time to allow some of our guys who are a little banged up to recover," Musselman said, "and begin our preparation for Kentucky."
Bob Holt contributed