BYU-Portland Postponed Due To COVID Issues Within The Portland Program

BYU’s WCC opener will have to wait as Saturday’s game at Portland was postponed due to COVID issues within Portland’s program. From the release:

“The Portland Pilots men’s basketball West Coast Conference opener against the BYU Cougars scheduled for this Saturday has been postponed due to COVID issues within the Portland program. The game will be rescheduled for a later date.”

Several college basketball programs have gone on COVID pause as players return from Holiday break. Portland is the fourth WCC program on pause after San Diego, Santa Clara, and Pepperdine went on COVID pause yesterday.

BYU plays its final scheduled non-conference game tonight (Wednesday) when they host Westminster in the Marriott Center. With the Portland game off, BYU’s next scheduled game is Thursday, January 6 versus Pacific in Provo.

One thing the WCC could do is schedule BYU at Pacific this Saturday. Pacific is the lone other team that has a Saturday opening after their home game versus Pepperdine was postponed. That would mean back-to-back BYU versus Pacific games, but at this point the WCC should schedule games versus available teams whenever possible as January will likely be a month where many more teams go on COVID pause.

The CDC recently changed its isolation recommendation for asymptomatic people with COVID from 10 days down 5, which could decrease the amount of time teams are on pause. Portland said in its release that their January 6 game versus LMU is still on, which is 8 days from now.