UCLA Men's Basketball's Matchup With Washington Called Off Due to COVID-19
The Bruins will not be making their scheduled trip to Seattle this weekend.
No. 5 UCLA men's basketball (7-1, 1-0 Pac-12) had its Sunday afternoon game with Washington (4-4, 2-3) canceled due to COVID-19 protocols in the Huskies' program, UCLA Athletics confirmed to All Bruins on Friday. The matchup will not be made up, as first reported by the Los Angeles Times, in accordance with the Pac-12 policy that the team impacted COVID-19 will forfeit should two teams not find a date to reschedule.
As a result, the Bruins will improve to 2-0 in conference play, but NCAA rules state that the teams' overall records will not be adjusted by the cancelation.
Washington was forced to call off its Thursday night matchup against Arizona on Thursday as well, but the Pac-12 is currently working with both of those teams to find a mutually agreeable date to reschedule the contest.
With the game getting canceled, UCLA will not play again until Dec. 11, when it travels to Marquette for a road game against coach Mick Cronin's old Big East foes.
There are conflicting reports on the extent of the COVID-19 issues within the Washington program at the moment, with the LA Times reporting seven positive tests and 247Sports' Bruin Report Online reporting four. A spokesperson from Washington Athletics told the LA Times on Thursday that the team had a 100% vaccination rate, but could not confirm how many, if any, members of the team or coaching staff officially tested positive.
"When it comes to the COVID stuff, pray everybody's OK, hope it just doesn't become a massive problem," Cronin said after Wednesday's win over Colorado. "It's tough."
It is unclear when these players and coaches contracted COVID-19 and when they took their tests, but Washington played Nevada on Nov. 24 not long before that team met health and safety issues of its own. Wolfpack coach Steve Alford announced he had tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 30, and his team had already called off their game against North Texas scheduled for Saturday.
"It seems to be becoming a problem – I've seen a lot of NBA guys dealing with it," Cronin said. "It's unfortunate, we all need to be careful, everybody get their extra shot, do everything you can."
UCLA went the entire 2020-2021 season without ever having an internal COVID-19 breakout, and all of its games postponed due to positive tests were on its opponents or the referees' side.
The Bruins' Dec. 23, 2020, game against Oregon was called off just moments before the opening tip-off as a result of a positive case within the officiating crew, and the rematch scheduled for January was pushed back again to March when the Ducks were dealing with positive tests. UCLA's game against Long Beach State was postponed twice as well, and it was never made up, but the Beach did not have to forfeit.
UCLA will return to the court for its road game against Marquette after a 10-day hiatus and final exams.
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