CBB Cancellations / Postponements

[RenoZag]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...e-covid-issues

Duke is expected to postpone its games this week against Clemson and Notre Dame because of COVID-19 issues within the Blue Devils' men's basketball program, sources told ESPN.

An announcement is expected soon regarding the game Wednesday vs. Clemson, but multiple sources said the Notre Dame game on Saturday also will be postponed.

The ACC modified its rescheduling policy last week as a result of the rapidly spreading omicron variant. Games that are not able to played will be rescheduled, and if a new date cannot be found, the game will be considered a no contest. ACC teams must have a minimum of seven players and one coach in order to play.

The 2021-2022 season will be chaotic as the peaks and valleys of the pandemic disrupt one basketball program after another. This thread is intended to track the announcements. Doing it in this forum as the MBB doesn't seem the appropriate spot.

[RenoZag]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ames-postponed

A pair of top-10 men's basketball matchups in the Pac-12 have been postponed, as UCLA and USC both announced Friday that they are continuing their coronavirus-related pauses.

No. 5 UCLA (9-1) hasn't played since a 67-56 win over Marquette on Dec. 11, subsequently canceling games against Alabama State, North Carolina and Cal Poly. The Bruins announced Friday that their scheduled games against No. 6 Arizona next Thursday and Arizona State on Jan. 1 have been postponed.

No. 8 USC (12-0) paused all team activities Sunday, canceling its game against Oklahoma State that had been scheduled for Tuesday. The Trojans were also scheduled to face Arizona and Arizona State next week.

The Pac-12 will look to reschedule all four games.

[RenoZag]

Via @GoodmanHoops, 12/27/21:

Virginia Tech’s game against North Carolina is postponed on Wednesday due to COVID issues within Hokies program.

That’s the third ACC game scrapped for Wednesday:

Duke at Clemson
FSU at BC
Virginia Tech at UNC

I polled more than 125 programs whether or not they have tested the entire team coming back from Christmas break (this does not include any programs previously paused):

Did Not Test: 73 (58 percent)
Tested: 53 (42 percent)

In a later tweet, he opined: " And College basketball scheduling has once again officially become a Sh!t Show.."

Goodman is also auditioning for the role of "Captain Obvious" in the Old Spice deodorant campaign. . .

[RenoZag]

The Illinois men's basketball home game vs. Florida A&M on Wednesday (Dec. 29) has been canceled due to positive COVID-19 results within the Illini program. The game will not be rescheduled.

[RenoZag]

Matt Norlander ( CBS Sports ). https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...-paused-teams/

The emergence of the omicron variant has prompted an outbreak of COVID-19 issues across American sports that refuses to cease. College basketball has taken on dozens of COVID pauses at programs throughout the country the past two weeks. . . Between cancellations and postponements, more than 90 games have been impacted in the first seven weeks this season.

It remains to be seen how damaging the Christmas break (when many players went home to see family), paired with the aggressive trend of rising omicron cases nationwide, impacts college basketball heading into New Year's Eve and early January.

Prior to the Christmas holiday, Norlander filed this story:
https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...forfeit-rules/.
examining forfeit rules and other impacts on the CBB season

Every commissioner I spoke with expressed some level of surprise over how quickly omicron has changed the calculus. The forfeit rule was put in place to increase vaccination, curb spread and maintain scheduling integrity. Breakthrough cases -- with mostly fully vaccinated but not yet boosted people -- has sideswiped sports.

"We were not able to establish a vaccine mandate across 11 states, so it communicated the importance of getting healthy, staying healthy and vaccination was central to that effort," Sankey said of the SEC. "Number two in that was games need to be played. You may have members of your team unable to play, but we're going to be sure the healthy members of your team are competing."

The end of December has already rocked college sports scheduling, and January promises to be even worse as health officials project omicron cases to skyrocket before a potential dramatic fall later into the winter.

It's going to be a bumpy ride. Within the last two hours, The Big East announced:

Three upcoming games have been canceled due to COVID issues in the Georgetown and St. John’s programs.

Marquette at St. John’s – Dec. 29
St. John’s at Georgetown – Jan. 1
Xavier at Georgetown – Jan. 4

Per the BIG EAST policy, the Conference office will attempt to reschedule.

[bartruff1]

For the past several months the players have been under the close supervision of the Universities and the Athletic Departments..... god only knows what they have been exposed to during the break...... boys being boys ......you can only hope they get back to school with clean laundry and nothing else.....