December 2, 2020
Dec. 2 COVID-19 update
Recent COVID-19 news on the NCAA women's college basketball front
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As is the new norm for the 2020-21 NCAA women’s basketball season, the last couple of days have seen significant COVID-19 postponements, cancellations, and other news.
In California, a few women’s college basketball teams are stuck in the mud. Due to the Santa Clara County Health Department’s new COVID-19 guidelines, Stanford, San Jose State, and Santa Clara are currently homeless. Because of the county’s temporary ban on contact sports, the teams are not allowed to play games in their home arenas.
Because of this, No. 2 Stanford has been forced to cancel back-to-back games against Pacific and San Diego, and its upcoming home games against Washington State and Washington are currently in limbo. The games are still scheduled as on but may have to be played on the road instead.
On Wednesday, women’s basketball suffered its most game casualties to date. Twelve games were either postponed or canceled and six games that were on tap for Thursday, Dec. 3 have been preemptively canceled as well.
Program shutdowns have also affected several other Power Five schools as well. Nine games involving Power Five programs have been canceled or postponed through Sunday, Dec. 6.
After canceling its first three games and having to pull out of the Jimmy V Women’s Classic this weekend, UConn finally has a scheduled date for its first game of the season: Dec. 15 against Butler in the friendly confines of Gampel Pavilion.
In the Missouri Valley Conference, a couple of teams have already put their seasons on pause. Illinois State is in shutdown mode until Saturday, Dec. 5, Southern Illinois remains temporarily paused until Friday, Dec. 4.
Vanderbilt has now had the first three games of its season canceled due to circumstances involving COVID-19 after having to cancel its game against Texas Tech. Although the program and Vanderbilt Athletics have yet to cite a specific reason for the cancellations (player, coach, or support staff positive test), the Commodores have canceled their games on a game-by-game basis and are tentatively scheduled to play Little Rock in Arkansas on Saturday, Dec. 5.
Utah Valley has been more transparent with its COVID-19 news, announcing on Monday the cancellation of its next three games due to a positive case within the program. As a result, the Wolverines are now tentatively scheduled to resume games on Dec. 15 at BYU.
Cleveland State has also discovered a positive test in its program, and the Vikings canceled the first four games of their season as they halted team activities. Their first scheduled game is now Dec. 19 against IUPUI.
