Kansas basketball coach Bill Self says guard Bobby Pettiford tested positive for COVID-19
LAWRENCE — Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self revealed Saturday night that freshman guard Bobby Pettiford’s absence was due to testing positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week.
Self had initially said Pettiford wasn’t feeling well and it was recommended Pettiford stay away from the team. And then, upon being asked directly about it being COVID-19 related, Self said Pettiford tested positive for it two days earlier.
“Just so you guys know we have tested others and all negative,” Self said. “... We handled it, doc and them handled it, and so I think we caught a break on that one.”
It’s unlikely Pettiford would have suited up and played in the Jayhawks’ win against George Mason. Self had told reporters the day before the Nevada game that the team was probably still a couple weeks away from knowing if they could play Pettiford with Pettiford feeling mostly pain free. But usually Pettiford has been present on the court as his teammates warm up for a game, during his injury-caused absence, and he wasn’t Saturday.
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Self said Pettiford hasn’t been around the team since symptoms developed, and that contact tracing hasn’t led to anyone else falling into a related protocol. Self has also said in the past that his entire team is vaccinated.
“I don’t know what happened at West Virginia today with Texas,” Self said Saturday. “Taz (Sherman) didn’t play. A couple other guys didn’t play and I assumed that’s what it was. And I don’t know if Baylor and Iowa State had their full compliment of guys. I kind of think they did ... I watched some of the game. But this is going to be a natural thing that you could have several teams — we didn’t have contact tracing, (COVID-19), but we played without a starter today and that may be the norm for the next couple, three weeks for everybody.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball's Bobby Pettiford tests positive for COVID
