Hurley, Arizona State basketball brace for unknown with COVID-19 cases surging again

Arizona State men's basketball coach Bobby Hurley concedes that the past 20 or so months dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has taught him to pivot. So when his team's game against Florida A&M was canceled on Tuesday because of a major power outage, he took it in stride.

"It was just one of those things out of our control," he said about the rare game canceled by something other than pandemic protocols. "If there is anything I've learned the last year it's about being adaptable."

After the cancellation Hurley dismissed his team for the holiday break, with many athletes having flights to their respective home towns later that night. He reminded them to be careful in their time away from campus.

The omicron variant of the coronavirus has caused an upsurge in positive cases, which has resulted in at least 120 cancellations across college basketball. A game between UC Riverside and Sacramento State was canceled five minutes before the scheduled tip off.

The Texas A&M football team backed out of its Gator Bowl game against Wake Forest, and Miami (Fla.) has been put on pause because of COVID-19 issues. The NHL is in a one-week shutdown and several NFL games have been moved to new dates.

Hurley said "pretty much everyone" in his program has been vaccinated and nearly all have gotten or are scheduled to get the booster.

"I just reminded them to keep a tight inner circle," he said. "It's still out there. You can't be too careful. We've been dealing with this long enough that guys know what they need to do, but we reiterated it to them."

Sports are not quite back to last year's mandates. Schools have not had to endure the daily testing that was necessary to have a season. They haven't had to resort to eating in separate rooms or spacing chairs at courtside, much of that because of the arrival of the vaccines since the end of last season.

Hurley said there isn't testing of players or program personnel unless someone starts displaying symptoms of any sickness. The Sun Devils had a minor disruption right at the start of the season when four players were put into contact tracing protocol for the first two games of the regular season against Portland and UC Riverside. The quartet included one starter, forward Jalen Graham, and a key reserve in guard Jay Heath.

But the Sun Devils have not had any disruptions since.

The same can't be said for other programs. The UCLA men's and women's teams each have had three non-conference games canceled; neither has played since Dec. 11.

Meanwhile, the unbeaten USC men had Tuesday's contest against Oklahoma State scrubbed. The Trojans are also still in limbo.

The next Pac-12 games for the Sun Devils, as well as rival Arizona, are on the road against the Los Angeles schools on Dec. 30 and Jan. 1.

There is reason for concern, but those games are still a week away so Hurley is hoping for the best.

"Obviously I'm paying attention to the situation but a lot can happen between now and then," he said. "Those games are more than a week away so it's hard to say where we're going to be at that time. We just have to prepare like we're playing on the scheduled days."

There have been disruptions closer to home. The Grand Canyon men's basketball team had to cancel its last non-conference game Tuesday night at Nevada and is not schedule to play again until Dec. 30, when it will open Western Athletic Conference play against Chicago State.

The 10-0 UA women had a game on Sunday against No. 11 Texas canceled due to COVID issues in its program.

With the number of cases escalating, the Pac-12 on Wednesday updated its policies, with many of the mandates similar to what was in place a year ago. Schools are still subject to local public health requirements in their own states.

Like last season, teams must have a minimum of seven scholarships players available. If that is not the case, the conference can reschedule a game. This policy is retroactive to any results beginning with the 2021-22 Pac-12 basketball season, which includes the previously canceled Dec. 5 UCLA at Washington men's basketball contest. That originally was ruled a forfeit due to issues in the Washington program.

The team with the highest won-lost percentage for all conference games will be the conference champion. That applies even in the event one or more teams cannot play its entire 20-game conference schedule. In order for teams to be eligible for the conference championship, teams must play no less than three fewer conference games than the average number of conference games played by all teams.

Hurley is keeping a positive outlook as the conference schedule proceeds after the holidays.

"I feel good about where we are as a program and all our people being vaccinated so I don't think we're going to be one of those teams that has to cancel multiple games," Hurley said. "But there is still a lot of uncertainty out there."

Reach the reporter at Michelle.Gardner@gannett.com or 602 444-4783. Follow her on Twitter @MGardnerSports.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU, Hurley keeping close tabs on COVID surge; Pac-12 updates policy