St. John’s Big East opener is going to have to wait a while.
The Johnnies registered more positive COVID-19 tests on Thursday and didn’t have the requisite amount of healthy players available to face Butler, the league announced, causing the game to be postponed.
St. John’s already had three players — Julian Champagnie, Joel Soriano and Tareq Coburn — in COVID-19 protocol. Champagnie tested positive last Friday. With additional positive tests, it seems unlikely St. John’s will be able to face Marquette next Wednesday. The New Year’s Day matchup with Georgetown, which has also paused its program due to COVID, is also in doubt.
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St. John’s entire team is vaccinated and there are members of the team who have received their booster shot. On Thursday, the league officially changed its policy on forfeits, after initially deciding that teams who didn’t have enough players to play would take losses. Now, all postponed games can be rescheduled.
Champagnie has been asymptomatic, Coburn has dealt with very mild symptoms and Soriano has more pronounced symptoms.