Coach Cal’s squad has already seen a few postponements throughout this difficult 2020-21 schedule due to COVID-19, but had yet to miss a game because the disease had breached its own walls. That has changed.

Kentucky revealed the men’s basketball team has been placed on a 48-hour pause in response to “a combination of positive testing, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the program,” in a press announcement released at 11:46 a.m. E.T. this morning.

This pause includes not a postponement of its slated matchup with No. 5 Texas tomorrow evening, but a cancellation of it, implying the schools do not intend to reschedule the contest.

Going on a two-day pause is “consistent with Southeastern Conference COVID-19 and UK Athletics COVID-19 management requirements,” according to the press release.

The outing against the Longhorns is the third game of the year to be postponed or canceled for the Cats. The first came back in November, when they intended to host Brad Calipari and Detroit-Mercy. That meeting was originally moved to the middle of December after COVID-19 invaded the Titan program, but was ultimately postponed a second time.

Kentucky’s first conference game – versus South Carolina – was also postponed, again due to COVID protocols for the opposing program. New dates for the Cats to face either school have not been announced.

Sitting at 5-10, but having a number of the nation’s top teams on the horizon, the minute chance for Kentucky to make a late push toward the NCAA Tournament bubble was now. With only one non-conference win, and the possibility of missing the multiple big-time opportunities it had remaining, that bubble seems to have – if it hadn’t already – officially popped.

Kentucky’s road date with Missouri, set for Tuesday in Columbia, is currently still on as scheduled.

This is a developing story. Updates will be provided as more information comes to light.