Colorado postpones next two basketball games

BOULDER  — The return of the Buffs has been pushed back a week.

The Colorado Buffaloes announced Sunday that their next two basketball games will be postponed as the team continues to manage a COVID-19 outbreak in the locker room. The two games were scheduled to be played in Oregon; first against the Ducks on Dec. 30, and the second against the Oregon State Beavers on Jan. 1. The weekend in Oregon was set to mark the transition from non-conference to conference play.

The University of Colorado's men's basketball games at Oregon on Thursday, Dec. 30, and Oregon State on Saturday, Jan. 1, have been postponed due to COVID-19 protocols within the Buffaloes' program

More Info: https://t.co/MkoMEfO8Vn pic.twitter.com/uck5yuQicC

— Colorado Men's Basketball (@CUBuffsMBB) December 27, 2021

The next game currently on the schedule for CU is on Jan. 6, when Washington State is due to come to Boulder. Washington will follow on the 9th.

News of Colorado’s COVID-19 situation first broke when the team announced that it couldn’t play #7 Kansas on Dec. 21, about two hours before tipoff. The Buffs were scheduled to take eight days off between that game and the game at Oregon, which was canceled Sunday.

The Pac-12 announced new COVID policies on Wednesday, which are similar to the policies used last season. Teams must compete if they have at least seven scholarship players and one coach available. A team can still choose to compete if it doesn’t meet the threshold, but isn’t required to. Teams that fall under the threshold are guaranteed two days of practice after reaching the threshold before they are required to play.

All games that can’t be played because of the pandemic will be rescheduled if possible. All games that can’t be rescheduled will be declared no contests, unless one program doesn’t work in good faith to reschedule the game. In that case, the game becomes a forfeit and the other team will be declared the winner.

Colorado hasn’t released details of the outbreak, but the policies imply that the Buffs are missing six or more scholarship players or all of their coaches. It’s worth noting that some scholarship players—like freshman forward Quincy Allen, who is recovering from offseason hip surgery—could be unavailable for reasons other than COVID.

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 surged across the United States this month, as part of the fifth wave of the pandemic. Colorado State has also seen basketball games canceled in recent weeks and the Colorado Avalanche haven’t played since Dec. 19 because of an outbreak. More than 25% of NBA players have entered COVID-19 protocol this season.