Notre Dame’s Home Opener Delayed Again After Saturday’s Game Canceled
Anyone involved in putting together college basketball schedules this year understood every game should be written in pencil.
Mike Brey and everyone else inside Rolfs Hall didn’t expect to be erasing so fast, though.
Notre Dame’s Saturday game against Purdue Fort Wayne has been canceled after the latter paused all activities following positive COVID-19 tests, per a Wednesday evening announcement, pushing back the Irish’s home opener once again. It was supposed to be Wednesday against Western Michigan. Then Saturday. Now, it’s Dec. 8 against Ohio State, possibly 10 days since Notre Dame’s last game.
The Saturday morning meeting with the Mastodons was canceled not 48 hours after it was conceived. There is currently no makeup date. It was a replacement for a Friday game against No. 12 Tennessee that was canceled due to positive tests that wiped out the first two weeks of the Volunteers’ season.
Following that game's cancellation, Brey fired off a tweet on Nov. 27 asking for anyone and everyone to play his team in a makeup game Friday or Saturday, home or road. Purdue Fort Wayne coach Jon Coffman responded the next day with healthy enthusiasm, saying his team would be willing to make the 93-mile one-way trip or host Notre Dame.
Coffman and Brey settled on the former, and it was formally announced Monday evening. Contract details and cancellation policies are not known.
Notre Dame (0-1) has had three games deleted from its schedule due to opponent roster unavailability issues, presumably tied to COVID-19. Wednesday’s game against Western Michigan was wiped out on Tuesday due to availability problems with the Broncos roster.
Purdue Fort Wayne and Western Michigan coming off the schedule leave Notre Dame with one game against a non-Power Conference opponent, a Jan. 18 trip to Howard. For now, the Irish’s upcoming schedule is Ohio State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Dec. 12 at Kentucky, Dec. 16 vs. Duke, Dec. 19 vs. Purdue in Indianapolis and Dec. 22 at Syracuse. They have eight days off after that before hosting Virginia Dec. 30.
Notre Dame opened its season with an 80-70 loss at Michigan State on Nov. 28. All told, it has played one game and had three canceled.
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