The college basketball season will get underway in earnest this Wednesday, Nov. 25, but it’s already faced a few snags in the process. Some teams have already been forced to postpone, cancel or reschedule matchups because of COVID-19 outbreaks, and as recently as Monday, some multi-team events are taking hits as well.
The most notable team directly affected this week is Duke, which was expected to open its season Wednesday against Gardner-Webb. Gardner-Webb, though, had a positive COVID-19 test within its program, and Duke has opted to postpone the game. The Blue Devils will open their season on Saturday against Coppin State instead.
Elsewhere, preseason No. 2 Baylor is dealing with the virus at the top of its program. Bears coach Scott Drew announced over the weekend that he tested positive, and as a result, the Bears are out of the loaded field of the Empire Classic this week at Mohegan Sun.
As developments continue to unfold, we’ll be tracking all the latest news and notes surrounding scheduling snafus below in our tracker.
Notable postponements or cancellations
- Nov. 25: Virginia vs. Maine (Uncasville, Connecticut)
- Nov. 25: Central Arkansas at Ole MIss
- Nov. 25: Gardner-Webb at Duke
- Nov. 25: Northern Arizona at Arizona
- Nov. 25-27: Creighton at Crossover Classic (Sioux Falls, South Dakota)
- Nov. 25-27: Texas A&M at Crossover Classic (Sioux Falls)
- Nov. 25: Western Illinois at DePaul
- Nov. 25: UMass Lowell vs. Florida
- Nov. 25: Stanford vs. Utah Valley
- Nov. 25: Drexel at Penn State
- Nov. 26: Baylor vs. Arizona State at Empire Classic (Uncasville)
- Nov. 26: Jackson State vs. Ole Miss
- Nov. 27: Arkansas State at Ole Miss
- Nov. 27; Baylor at Empire Classic (Uncasville)
- Nov. 27: Virginia vs. Florida (Uncasville)
- Nov. 27: Florida State vs. Gardner-Webb
- Nov. 28: Chicago State at DePaul
- Nov. 29: Baylor at Seton Hall
- Nov. 29: Gardner-Webb at Georgia
- Dec. 1: Alcorn State at DePaul
- Dec. 5: Ole Miss at Memphis
- All games: Bethune-Cookman, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Ivy League (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale.)