Alabama Basketball Game vs Colorado State in Jeopardy Due to COVID-19 Concerns

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 6 Alabama basketball's Tuesday matchup against No. 23 Colorado State at the C.M. Newton Classic appears to be in jeopardy.

On Friday afternoon, the Ram's official Twitter account announced that it would be unable to make its trip to Fort Worth, Texas for this Saturday's game against Tulsa due to concerns surrounding COVID-19 and the Omicron variant.

"Based on public health recommendations & COVID-related concerns on the team, CSU is unable to travel to Fort Worth for its Saturday game against Tulsa," the CSU tweet reads. "The status of future games, including Tuesday's scheduled game against #6 Alabama, will be determined at a later date."

Based on public health recommendations & COVID-related concerns on the team, CSU is unable to travel to Fort Worth for its Saturday game against Tulsa. The status of future games, including Tuesday's scheduled game against #6 Alabama, will be determined at a later date.
— Colorado State Men’s Basketball (@CSUMBasketball) December 17, 2021

The cancellation of the Rams' game with Tulsa seems to be more of a precautionary measure rather than a reaction to a COVID outbreak among the team. However, a statement issued by CSU regarding the cancellation of the Tulsa game said that there are concerns regarding the virus, but did not reveal if any players or coaches had tested positive.

"Based on public health recommendations and COVID-related concerns on the team, the Rams will be unable to travel for the Hoop Hype XL Collegiate Basketball Showcase," the CSU statement reads. "The game will not be rescheduled this season."

So far this season, CSU has started the season 10-0. Among their wins includes a 66-63 victory over SEC foe Mississippi State. The Alabama game will remain on its schedule barring an announcement of its cancellation over the next several days.

Alabama coach Nate Oats spoke with the media on Friday in a pre-scheduled press conference just minutes after the announcement of CSU's cancelled game. While Oats couldn't provide any information on the status of Tuesday's game, he said that he would reach out to CSU immediately following the press conference.

"I'm fairly good friends with their head coach," Oats said. "I was shown that article, tweet that got put out on that game. I'm going to give him a call here, see what's going on with him. I have no other [information] other than what you've seen. Obviously if it's somebody within their program has it and there's a bunch of people having to quarantine, that'd probably affect the deal.

"It's hard to tell with this. Sometime's it's them, sometimes it's the opponent — it's just hard to tell and I have no other information other than on our end, we want this game played really badly. They're a really good team. We want to play two quality games going into Christmas after that Memphis game. I'd love to get two quality games under our belt before SEC play.

"But like I said before, we're going to control everything that we need to control and we want to play this game really bad but sometimes stuff's out of our control and I'll reach out to Colorado State and see what's going on with them as soon as we get off this press conference."

As of the writing of this story, Alabama and Colorado State are still scheduled to tip off on Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 6 p.m. CT. The game will take place at the newly-refurbished Legacy Arena in downtown Birmingham, Ala..