Weekly Kibbitz
Yeshiva U. Basketball Team Forfeits Crucial Game,
Citing Inadequate Warmup Time After Shabbat
get the top ranking in the Skyline Conference and get
to play all of the postseason games at home.

The game was set for 8:30 p.m. But that time
came and went without a starting whistle. Instead, the
student broadcaster who has streamed YU’s games
since before the team’s improbable NCAA tournament
run last year tweeted that the game would start closer
to 9 p.m. Two minutes before that, he tweeted again:
“The game has been canceled.” Fox’s explanation
came hours later.

The incident marks a rare public collision in YU’s
unusual status as the only Modern Orthodox school
in the NCAA. Last year, as the team extended its
winning streak past league records, ultimately ending
at 50 games, national news coverage focused on how
players were able to balance religious observance
and athletic commitments, and how their conference
devised a schedule that would not require the team to
play on Shabbat.

Saturday night’s schedule was tight. Shabbat, when
travel is prohibited, ended at 6:15 p.m. at YU’s campus
in Washington Heights. Farmingdale State’s Long Island
campus is just under 40 miles away, and travel by car
The website that streams Yeshiva University
Maccabees games showed that the matchup
against Farmingdale State College never began
on Feb. 18.

or bus typically takes just under hour, suggesting that
an hour-long warmup would not fi t before the offi cially
scheduled start time.

The two teams last faced off in November, during
a Saturday night game at YU. Farmingdale State won
that matchup 80-69, meaning that even though the two
teams each had a 12-3 record during the regular season
after the cancellation, Farmingdale State will have the
top seed in the postseason competition that began on
Feb. 21. YU is ranked No. 3 and will play Saint Joseph’s
University-Long Island at home that night.

The championship game is also scheduled for
the evening of Feb. 25. According to the Skyline
Conference’s website, “The championship fi nal will
take place Feb. 25 (note: accommodations will be
made for religious observances).”
— Philissa Cramer | JTA
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If Yeshiva University’s men’s basketball team had won
its game Saturday night, on Feb. 18, it would have gone
into the postseason ranked No. 1 in its division yet
again. But it didn’t even play.

That’s because the Maccabees’ game against
the Farmingdale State College Rams was
canceled after its scheduled tipoff time, with YU’s
athletic director citing tight timing after Shabbat
as the reason.

In a statement issued late that night, the athletic
director, Greg Fox, said a promise to allow “adequate
warmup time” after the YU team traveled from its home
in Washington Heights to Farmingdale State’s Long
Island campus had been broken.

“It is sad for me to report that we chose to cancel
tonight’s men’s basketball game against Farmingdale
State College,” Fox said. “When we arrived at the game,
as early as possible after Shabbat, we were not provided
with suffi cient time to warm up. In the interest of safety,
we could not allow our student-athletes to proceed.

Farmingdale had made a prior commitment to provide
adequate warmup time, which was not honored.”
The stakes of the game were high: The winner would