Florida Gators Pause Basketball Team Activities Due to COVID-19

The Florida Gators have paused all basketball team activities for one week as of today due to positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing, the program announced.

UF will not play its scheduled games against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell on Wednesday or the University of Virginia on Friday in the Mohegan Sun Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament.

The news was first reported by Jeff Goodman, of Stadium.

The extent of the coronavirus outbreak within Florida's basketball program is unknown at this time. UF's weekly COVID-19 testing update shared no new non-football COVID-19 cases across the entire athletics program as of last Monday's round of testing.

On Oct. 22, head coach Mike White shared that the team had already dealt with COVID-19 related issues that he could not go into much detail about considering student privacy.

White did acknowledge, however, that there had been an eight-to-ten day stretch of practice with only five players at one point prior to the press conference.

"We’ve had five or six missed practices just based on, ‘Coach, I’ve got a headache. Coach, I’ve got a runny nose and a sore throat.’ Then the next day they test negative, feel a lot better and you bring them back," White said. "It’s not COVID related. Last year they would have practiced. You add that to the equation and it makes for a lot of missed practices, a lot of missed time, lack of continuity.

"That’s where depth, some of the deeper teams in the country this year give themselves a chance potentially, just potentially, and, heck, I hope everyone has all their guys eligible to play every game but you just never know what’s around the corner."