FIRST MW CONTESTS IN DOUBT FOR SDSU
Colorado State shuts down basketball with positive COVID tests
So much for San Diego State’s Mountain West basketball opener.
Colorado State announced late Friday afternoon that men’s basketball team activities will be paused through Dec. 2 following two COVID-19 positive tests in the program. The Aztecs were supposed to host the Rams on Dec. 3 and 5 to open their 20-game conference schedule.
“The pause is effective immediately,” a CSU statement said. “These are the first two positive tests since the student-athletes reported back in June.”
The Rams were scheduled to play Cal on Wednesday in Corvallis, Ore., then face Oregon State on Thanksgiving. Both those games are canceled.
There’s a chance the Mountain West games could be rescheduled later in the season, if both schools have open dates from other cancellations or in the first week of March, which was purposely left vacant for makeups. The Aztecs have 11 days between the end of the regular season and the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas.
They open Wednesday against No. 22 UCLA at spectator-less Viejas Arena (7:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network), then host UC Irvine at 4 p.m. Friday. Now they’ll have nearly two weeks before their next scheduled game, Dec. 10 at No. 18 Arizona State.
Coach Brian Dutcher has talked extensively about the need to adjust on the f ly and have non-Division I teams on speed dial. USD and UCSD are not options because the Toreros just started their own COVID-19 pause, and the Tritons aren’t allowed to play until the conclusion of the fall quarter on Dec. 18.
The county’s two Div. II programs, Point Loma Nazarene and Cal State San Marcos, aren’t starting until January at the earliest. But NAIA San Diego Christian and the University of Saint Katherine in San Marcos are both operating; in fact, they played each other Nov. 6 at a rec center in San Marcos.
“You have to be f lexible in everything you’re doing,” Dutcher said. “Even though they’re not on the schedule, there’s always a chance over the course of the season to play.”
The Aztecs have had no positive tests within the men’s basketball program since returning from an athletic department-wide “pause” of two weeks in midSeptember.
Said Dutcher: