Calipari: Coaches want to know if Keyontae Johnson's collapse was tied to COVID

Thankfully, Florida star Keyontae Johnson’s condition continues to improve following his collapse in the Florida State game last Saturday, but questions remain about what caused it. The Associated Press reported that Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 over the summer. It is not clear whether the incident is linked to the virus, which can lead to myocarditis, a viral infection of the heart muscle, but if it is, John Calipari would like to know because he has a few players who tested positive for COVID too.

“No one’s telling us. We know he had COVID but I would hope if there was something related to COVID they’d let us all know because I have a couple kids who had it earlier.”

“It’s scary,” Devin Askew added. “What the world saw with him, it’s scary. None of us really know a whole lot about COVID, we just know it’s a dangerous virus and it can cause harm to people, but it’s scary. You’ve just got to be cautious and careful with this whole COVID thing. Wear a mask at all times to try to prevent it. Wash your hands, do everything you can.”

Calipari said the moment made him flashback to 1995, when Marcus Camby collapsed prior to the UMass/St. Bonaventure game and had to be taken to the hospital.

“The second thing is, I lived it. I lived it with Marcus Camby. In 1995, we were at St. Bonaventure and Donta Bright came running in the locker room prior to the game and said, ‘Coach, Marcus fell out. Marcus fell out.’ And I went out and he was unconscious in the hallway breathing but totally knocked out unconscious. I took him to the hospital — I didn’t coach the game, I went to the hospital with him and stayed overnight. Bruiser stayed with me. When we got back, he went to another hospital and they never found out what it was. They never had an idea what it was.

“They say 70% of those kind of things you never know why it happened. The rest of the season I was really conscious of him, especially when he first came back. If he went down and grabbed his knees, my stomach was in my throat, but he ended up being, it was something obviously but he played the rest of the year and he had a terrific 17 years in the NBA so let’s hope that it’s the same. But if it has something to do with COVID, I would say every coach in the country would like to know if it did.”

Yesterday, in an interview with ESPN Gainesville, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said he visited Johnson in the hospital on Tuesday and was happy to see him sitting up and communicating.

“He was actually awake. He was actually sitting up in a chair. You could tell he’s still been sedated, so he was still a little groggy, but he thanked me for coming by. It was good to see him and sitting up, he had family in there, his parents and others.

“I’m told today that he’s even progressed a lot since then, that he’s having good conversations with his doctors, with his coaches. He’s smiling and laughing. Still undergoing more tests. I think the tests that have gotten back so far have been positive from a medical standpoint. His prognosis seems to be trending in the right direction, but we still have a lot of questions. The medical folks have a lot of questions they want to make sure they get answered.”

[WCJB]

This afternoon, Stricklin and Florida released another update saying Johnson continues to show progress, but the Gators are postponing their next three games (Florida Atlantic, Florida A&M, James Madison) to regroup. Earlier this week, the program postponed the game vs. North Florida, which was set to take place last night.

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— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) December 17, 2020