It doesn’t look as if it will be a happy holiday break for the Colorado men’s basketball team.
On Tuesday evening, less than two hours before the scheduled tipoff against No. 7 Kansas at the CU Events Center, the university announced the cancellation of the much-anticipated showdown against the Jayhawks due to COVID-19 issues within the CU program.
A Colorado spokesperson told BuffZone that head coach Tad Boyle would be unavailable for comment until after Christmas. The game is not expected to be rescheduled this season, and it remains unclear if KU still will owe Colorado a home game per the home-and-home agreement that Tuesday’s game was supposed to complete.
CU played in Lawrence two years ago and the Jayhawks originally were slated to return the trip to Boulder last year, but the programs agreed to push the CU home date forward from last year’s fan-less pandemic season.
“Our top priority since the start of the pandemic has been the health and safety of our student-athletes, staff and the community,” CU Athletic Director Rick George said in a statement. “While we’re disappointed for our student-athletes and fans to have to cancel the game, both schools agreed this is the best decision.”
CU becomes the fourth Pac-12 Conference men’s program to have its schedule impacted by COVID issues in recent weeks, following Washington, UCLA and USC, which on Sunday announced its scheduled game on Wednesday against Oklahoma State was off the ledger.
On Monday, Boyle told BuffZone the original plan remained in place for the team to be released to travel home following the game against Kansas, with a planned return date in Boulder on Christmas night. While the details regarding which Buffs players, or how many, tested positive to force Tuesday’s cancellation remains undisclosed, the turn of events almost guarantees at least a portion of the team will spend the week in isolation instead of visiting family.
Boyle has stated repeatedly the program is 100 percent vaccinated, with the entire squad becoming fully vaccinated around late July/early August ahead of the Buffs’ exhibition trip to Costa Rica. That means, in general, no one in the program would be eligible for a booster shot until around late January. Boyle also has said the only reason any player would be tested for COVID at this stage would be if he was exhibiting symptoms.
The Buffs are not scheduled to play again until they resume Pac-12 play at Oregon on Dec. 30.
With the virus suddenly scuttling schedules throughout pro sports and across the nation in college basketball, the San Jose Mercury News on Monday reported the Pac-12 is discussing possible adjustments to this year’s COVID policies. A third of the league has been sent to the sideline within the past three weeks, and this year’s forfeiture policy for league games — which forces the team with the virus issues to take a forfeit loss if a canceled game cannot be rescheduled — could revert to last year’s policy, in which those games were considered no contests.
Regarding ticket refunds for Tuesday’s canceled game, CU issued the following information via its release:
Fans with season tickets or single game tickets who made their original purchase from the CU Athletics Ticket Office have the following options:
— Donate the value of the tickets to the Buff Club for end of year tax purposes and double priority points.
— Request a credit on your account to be used this season.
— Request a refund to their original form of payment.
Those who bought their tickets through the CU Athletic Ticket Office will be contacted via email (Tuesday) evening with an outline of the process, and prompted to respond with their preference by 5 p.m. Jan. 7.
This content was originally published here.