Nate Allen
FAYETTEVILLE - Because of covid-19 issues within the Texas A&M Aggies men’s basketball program, the Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Texas A&M SEC game scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday at Walton Arena has been postponed indefinitely, the SEC Office announced Thursday in Birmingham, Ala.
The Aggies postponed last Wednesday’s game against Vanderbilt because of their covid-19 issues.
Arkansas, 14-5 overall, 6-4 in the SEC upon defeating Mississippi State, 61-45 last Tuesday at Walton for the Razorbacks’ fourth consecutive SEC victory, are scheduled next to play Tuesday’s SEC game against the Kentucky Wildcats tipping off at 6 p.m. (CST) televised by ESPN2 at the Wildcats’ Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
Following Thursday’s announcement, Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman issued a statement.
“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.
 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. 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 non-conference games.
 We will use this as a time to allow some of our guys who are a little banged up to recover and begin our preparation for Kentucky.”
Three Razorbacks presently nurse injuries. Junior guard Desi Sills did not play again against Mississippi State upon injuring a shoulder during Tuesday’s first half.
Arkansas freshman reserve forward Jaylin Williams played nine minutes against Mississippi State despite suffering “a deep bone bruise” in a knee during last Saturday’s 81-77 SEC vs. Big 12 Challenge loss at Oklahoma State.
Arkansas freshman guard Moses Moody played 38 minutes against Mississippi State despite spraining an ankle during last Sunday’s practice.
The Razorbacks used Wednesday as their NCAA mandated one off day per week so have the option of practicing Thursday through Saturday before next week’s practice schedule resets on Sunday.
Likely the Razorbacks will use next Wednesday as their off day prior to launching preparations for the Feb. 13 Saturday SEC game at Missouri.