Florida vs. LSU postponed due to Gators’ COVID-19 issues

The Florida Gators’ Saturday matchup with LSU in Baton Rouge has been postponed “due to a combination of positive tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Florida basketball program, consistent with Southeastern Conference COVID-19 management requirements,” the SEC announced Friday.

The game was set to tip at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The league’s announcement makes no mention of when it could be rescheduled — and, in fact, no SEC team has played a postponed men’s basketball game this season, with the league instead rescheduling other pre-existing games into newly opened dates.

The last Saturday of the SEC’s 10-week schedule, however, was kept open for all 14 teams, with the possibility that games would need to be shifted to that March 6 date.

And Florida-LSU might be an important game for the league to make up, as the two programs stand good chances of being near the top of the SEC standings and n the mix for NCAA Tournament participation. The Gators sit at 6-4 in league play and as a No. 7 seed in the Bracket Matrix’s survey of published bracket predictions; LSU is 6-4 and checks in as the No. 11 seed in that latest Bracket Matrix.

Florida held off a late-charging LSU to take an 83-79 win in the teams’ first meeting this season in Gainesville.