Ohio State Basketball to Play UCLA Instead of North Carolina on Saturday in Cleveland

"The revised schedule was created to more closely align COVID-19 testing protocols between the competing programs and their respective conferences."

Ohio State basketball announced a change to its this afternoon and its a pretty immediate impact.

Instead of playing North Carolina on Saturday in Cleveland, the Buckeyes are now scheduled to play UCLA.

Here is the official press release from CBS, which is organizing the tournament:

Organizers for the CBS Sports Classic announced updated matchups for the 2020 event, which is set to take place Dec. 19 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. 

North Carolina will face Kentucky at 2 p.m. ET, followed by UCLA and Ohio State at approximately 4:15 p.m. ET with both games airing on CBS. The revised schedule was created to more closely align COVID-19 testing protocols between the competing programs and their respective conferences. 

North Carolina is 4-2 in the CBS Sports Classic, Kentucky and Ohio State share matching 3-3 records and UCLA is 2-4 in the event. This set of matchups was last featured in 2018 when Kentucky defeated North Carolina, 80-72, and Ohio State knocked off UCLA, 80-66.

According to Adam Jardy at the Columbus Dispatch, Buckeye coach Chris Holtmann spoke with UNC coach Roy Williams on Wednesday morning about changing this weekend's schedule and both were okay with it.

"We want the event to happen, obviously," Holtmann told The Dispatch. "We both just agreed.

"It's a different year and I'm sure this won't be the first or last game that gets changed. It's a year of unique challenges, for sure."

The alteration shouldn't really affect Ohio State's strength of schedule. Both are huge national programs and UCLA is receiving votes in this week's poll. North Carolina is currently ranked No. 22 by the AP.

In the meantime, Ohio State is scheduled to play Purdue tonight in West Lafayette to open Big Ten competition. Tip off is at 7 p.m. Eastern Time and the game is being televised on Big Ten Network.

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