Another wave of cancellations hits CSUB basketball programs
Jan. 11—The Cal State Bakersfield basketball teams continued to battle with COVID-19 Tuesday, canceling a total of three games across the men's and women's programs.
The men's opponent was UC Davis. The Aggies, who beat UC San Diego in an empty arena Saturday, had been slated to visit the Icardo Center Thursday night. CSUB next plays UC Davis on the road Feb. 19.
Unlike CSUB's announcement from last week, which took out both Thursday and Saturday's games at once, this cancellation left Saturday's home matchup against UC Riverside intact as of Tuesday.
The men's team has been unable to take the floor since its Jan. 1 home game against Long Beach State was canceled just over an hour before tipoff, and missed away games against CSUN and UC Santa Barbara last week.
The women's team, which entered COVID-19 protocols for the first time last Thursday, was scheduled to travel to visit the Aggies on Thursday and the Highlanders on Saturday, prior to Tuesday's cancellation. Both teams were in action last weekend. CSUB will next host UCR on Feb. 17 and UC Davis on Feb. 19.
Big West Conference competition minimums for basketball require that a team have seven healthy players and one coach in order to participate.
These matchups are the first three to be canceled from this week's Thursday-Saturday Big West slate. Last week, 12 of 20 games were played as scheduled.
The Big West has thus far stuck to its December policy of declaring virus-affected games no contest, rather than actively rescheduling them.
The NCAA Convention, which begins Tuesday, is set to rule on the minimum number of games a team must participate in to be eligible for the postseason. That could alter the conference's decision-making going forward.
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
