In an expected move the Gators announced Monday evening that their game with North Florida, originally scheduled for Wednesday, December 16th, would be cancelled.
The news came on the heels of an update on the condition of junior forward Keyontae Johnson who was able to be moved from Tallahassee to Gainesville, as well as a particularly encouraging note regarding him being able to respond to simple commands.
Having played North Florida 6 times over the past decade they have become a staple of Florida’s non-conference schedule and they will certainly meet again in the new future, likely next season. There have been no plans to attempt to reschedule the game, and almost certainly there won’t be.
Though it was expected since Saturday that Wednesday’s game would be cancelled, a source within the North Florida program said on Monday morning that they had yet to hear from Florida, though they were operating on the assumption the game would not be played. By all accounts North Florida was in complete support of Florida’s desire to cancel the game, an admirable move that deserves recognition. For programs like North Florida the money they make in “buy games” with teams like Florida is huge for their operating budget, and while it’s not known if Florida will be paying them some or all of the money that would have been originally negotiated it’s worth noting North Florida could have made the process more difficult should they have decided to.
There is also word going around that the Gators might cancel Saturday, December 19th’s contest with Florida Atlantic. Right now there isn’t a reason for them to make a decision right now, but they have reached out to Florida Atlantic to tell them it is a possibility. There will likely be several Keyontae Johnson updates coming before Saturday and what those updates are could decide the fate of the game. Florida Atlantic is coached by Dusty May, a former Florida assistant who never got to coach Johnson but played a role in recruiting him. Given the relationship between May and Florida’s staff, certainly there will be no problem in coming to the best possible conclusion for that game.
We have seen multiple games cancelled in college basketball the day before or day of a game, so it could be Friday before we hear the fate of the game against Florida Atlantic.
If the Gators choose to cancel the Florida Atlantic game in addition to the North Florida game, they very well may choose to cancel the entirety of their non-conference schedule which at that point would only be James Madison on December 22nd. Cancelling that game would allow plenty of time for the team to process what has happened and what will happen over the next week, though once again it’s possible we won’t know until closer to that date what the Gators choose to do. It’s also worth noting that if they cancelled that game it would allow players to potentially have more time at Christmas to see their families and recharge.
From a basketball standpoint, which admittedly feels incredibly weird to say at this moment since it is secondary in everything that is going on, the cancellation of Florida’s three final non-conference games wouldn’t really move the needle in either direction. North Florida and James Madison are two teams in the basement of college basketball by any metric and while Florida Atlantic is a step up from those two teams they are still a mid-major team that the Gators wouldn’t gain much from beating. Would it be nice for them to have the opportunity to build up some chemistry before going into SEC play? Maybe, perhaps even probably, but once again–basketball is secondary right now.
Florida will have a non-conference game in the middle of conference play against West Virginia, a team looking like a Final Four contender right now. That could be a very important one for the Gators as right now the SEC as a whole is struggling and the league won’t provide as many good games as they normally would.
In this time, please remember to keep Keyontae Johnson and his family in your thoughts and prayers.