Louisville and UConn are scheduled to open the ladies’s school basketball season towards one another on Nov. 4 in a marquee conflict of nationally-ranked groups on the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The Huskies, the reigning nationwide champions, had been ranked atop the preseason Related Press High 25 Ballot launched earlier this week, whereas the Cardinals checked in at No. 20.
However now that matchup is in jeopardy.
The federal government shutdown signifies that paychecks for energetic obligation navy members aren’t rolling in and lots of services are scaling again. The Ramstein Air Base’s web site says that “civilian personnel not engaged in excepted actions will likely be positioned in a non-work, non-pay standing,” and the American Legion notes that lots of the base’s workplaces and applications are closed or providing “restricted companies.”
ESPN Occasions is the organizer of the sport, presenting it as a part of the Peraton Armed Forces Traditional, which has hosted school basketball video games at varied U.S. navy venues throughout the globe since 2012.
When reached by SB Nation on Wednesday, an ESPN spokesperson stated in an announcement: “Whereas our objective is to host this yr’s Armed Forces Traditional as deliberate at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, we’re exploring contingency plans as a result of circumstances.”
A spokesperson for Louisville girls’s basketball merely stated, “The sport remains to be working as scheduled.” A spokesperson for UConn declined to remark. Requests for remark from the Ramstein Air Base weren’t instantly returned.
In line with sources conversant in the scenario, all events concerned are supposed to fulfill subsequent week about choices.
Louisville coach Jeff Walz first publicly raised considerations in regards to the viability of the sport earlier this week whereas talking on the program’s tip-off luncheon.
“Our first sport, as you recognize, is hopefully going to be on the Air Power base — if we open again up,” Walz stated, in line with WDRB.“We’re closed proper now, our nation.”
It’s doable that, ought to the shutdown proceed, it may very well be moved to a campus web site at both Louisville or UConn. It may additionally stay a impartial web site sport by transferring it to an enviornment with an open date.
The shutdown is now in its fifteenth day. It started on Oct. 1 when the Senate didn’t advance a Home-passed GOP invoice to maintain the federal government at present funding by Nov. 21. Democrats within the Senate are demanding well being care coverage adjustments — particularly relating to extending subsidies for the Inexpensive Care Act marketplaces — that President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have refused to entertain. The invoice that handed the Home didn’t embody an extension of the well being care tax credit. Greater than 24 million individuals use the ACA marketplaces to buy well being plans.
Information organizations such because the Related Press, USA At present and CBS have characterised the shutdown as having “no finish in sight” as politicians level fingers at one another. NPR stated “Republicans and Democrats seem no nearer to an settlement” after the Senate failed once more on Wednesday — for the ninth time — to advance a invoice that may reopen the federal government.
The final prolonged authorities shutdown occurred throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace. It started in December 2018 and lasted 35 days — a report for a shutdown. Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson stated earlier this week that this may very well be “one of many longest shutdowns in American historical past.”
Ought to the shutdown attain the scheduled date of the Louisville versus UConn sport, it should have tied the size of the earlier report.
If the shutdown ends quickly and the sport is performed as scheduled, will probably be the third time the Ramstein Air Base has hosted the Armed Forces Traditional. Will probably be the primary time the bottom has hosted a girls’s school basketball sport.
UConn is 20-3 all-time vs. Louisville. Two of the final three common season conferences between the Cardinals and Huskies have been on impartial courts.
