SoCon postpones game due to "Chattanooga Flu"

There are not many truths in this world. But two of them I am sure of:

1) Everybody gets sick in the winter time
2) College campuses are the breeding ground for disease

Having stated these truths it's still hard to imagine that a college sporting event would be postponed because an entire team was sick.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Due to a flu outbreak at University of Chattanooga, the Mocs basketball teamwas left with just five healthy players. The Southern Conference was forced to postpone the game against Western Carolina, which was slated to take place on Thursday.

Since this technically qualifies as a flu outbreak, the conference had to comply with the guidelines set by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which states the affected players must been quarantined for a 48-hour period, at which time they will be re-examined.

How did Chattanooga get to this point?

Well for starters, the Mocs only had eight scholarship players before the outbreak. Junior center Jeremy Saffore was already sick with the flu, redshirt junior Chris Early had been suspended and sophomore forward Sam Watson was out with a shoulder injury.

But then on Wednesday Keegan Bell, Omar Wattad and Jeff Smith all tested positive for the flu. That left Chattanooga with only five players. And while a team can technically play basketball with only five players, it's probably not recommended at the Division-I level.

When the Mocs suited up for practice on Wednesday, only three players, Ricky Taylor, Jahmal Burroughs and Troy Cage were dressed and ready to go. That's not good when the biggest game of the season is on the horizon. The Mocs are sitting at 10-3 in the conference, only two-and-a-half games ahead of the second-place Catamounts, who are 7-5.

But back to this "flu outbreak" thing.

Does the health center at Chattanooga not inform the athletes on the benefits of showering, proper hygiene and flu prevention tactics? What are they putting in the water down in Tennessee? Have any of these kids ever heard of a flu shot before?

Or maybe these kids just got sick because well, it's the winter, and everybody gets sick in the winter. Or maybe these kids got sick because you could grow a bacteria sample with just one culture swab from a dorm room floor.

Or maybe there's an outbreak monkey on the loose at Chattanooga.

I dunno.

But what I do know is that not much can get accomplished at a practice with only three available players.