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Men's Basketball

About 14 Syracuse players tested positive for COVID-19, Boeheim says

Charlotte Little | Contributing Photographer

Buddy Boeheim was among several Syracuse players who tested positive for COVID-19.

By Roshan FernandezSenior Staff Writer

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UPDATED: Dec. 21 at 1:54 p.m.

At least four of Syracuse’s five starters tested positive for COVID-19 last week, Buddy Boeheim said on a radio show on Monday morning. As a result, the SU basketball program postponed two games that were scheduled against Lehigh on Saturday and against Cornell on Tuesday.

Head coach Jim Boeheim said that it was probably 14 of 20 players who tested positive last week. He said all were vaccinated and had received the booster shot.

“Many are symptomatic but all are not sick more than a day or so, feeling tired,” Boeheim said on the radio on Tuesday morning. “This vaccine definitely made it easier for them to get through it. … We had many guys clearly sick last year, and this year we don’t.”



Buddy told TK99’s Gomez and Friends that his brother, Jimmy Boeheim, and Cole Swider first tested positive last week. Then as practice continued throughout the week, more players contracted COVID-19, he said. Buddy said he and Joe Girard III tested positive on Thursday.

“Guys started to test positive more and more throughout the week, and we had 12-13 (available) guys, and said, ‘Alright, we’re gonna keep going and if more people end up positive, we’re going to have to cancel the game,’” Buddy said on ESPN Syracuse.

In an interview that aired later on Monday afternoon, Buddy told Brent Axe that his symptoms are much milder than they were last year when he contracted COVID-19 during the Orange’s program pause in late December and early January. “Just tired,” he said. “A headache here and there, but nothing crazy. No loss of taste or smell, which was my biggest concern. So I’m feeling good so far.”

Buddy and Girard previously tested positive for COVID-19 last season as part of one of the Orange’s program pauses. Girard said he felt very tired while he was sick, and Boeheim said both Buddy and Girard didn’t instantly return to 100% afterward.

“They were sick and they were out. Everybody knows this happens and knows they were. Then they expect them to come back like nothing ever happened. It just doesn’t work that way,” Boeheim said later in January. 

With Syracuse’s last two nonconference games postponed this year, the Orange (5-5, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) are currently amid an 18-day pause, one that ties the longest in Boeheim’s tenure. SU is scheduled to play Georgia Tech next on Dec. 29. 

Buddy said players who tested negative were able to return home, or are working out individually in the Carmelo K. Anthony Center, adding that he’s in isolation. The team is scheduled to reconvene on Dec. 23 for five or six practices before the game against the Yellow Jackets, Buddy said, a change from the program’s previous holiday schedule.

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