There continue to be quite a few NCAA Division I men’s basketball postponements thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, the Houston Cougars-Cincinnati Bearcats game scheduled for Saturday went down, and on Thursday, the USC Trojans-Stanford Cardinal game set for that night was cancelled, as was the Seton Hall Pirates-Butler Bulldogs game set for Friday. This marks the second COVID-19 challenge for the Trojans (seen above in a Jan. 16 game against the Washington State Cougars), as they shut down for two weeks in December following a positive case on their roster. Here’s more on the USC-Stanford cancellation from Adam Grosbard of The Orange County Register:
On Thursday, the Trojans’ game at Stanford was postponed indefinitely due to “a suspected COVID-related issue within our program,” USC tweeted out 14 minutes before the team was scheduled to play the Cardinal.
In a follow-up tweet, USC announced it would work with the Pac-12 and Stanford to find a date on which to reschedule the conference game.
…A lot is still unknown about USC’s current situation following Thursday’s announcement. USC did not specify whether a player or coach has tested positive for COVID-19, or whether a non-conclusive test result came back prior to this game. And if there is a positive case, there is no telling whether others will be impacted due to contact tracing.
And here’s more on what happened with Seton Hall and Butler, as per Adam Zagoria of NJ.com:
The Big East Conference announced that the Seton Hall at Butler game, which was scheduled for Friday, has been postponed due to COVID-related issues within the Butler program.
No makeup date has been announced.
Seton Hall’s next scheduled games are both against ranked opponents and at home: on Wednesday against No. 11 Creighton and on Jan. 30 against No. 3 Villanova.
We’ll see what happens with plans to make up these games. But these add to the many cancellations we’ve seen so far this season.
[The Orange County Register; photo from Gary A. Vasquez/USA Today Sports]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.