Boise State men’s basketball in Wyoming, State of Utah postponed

Less than 24 hours ago, the Boise State men’s basketball team boarded a charter flight to Laramie, Wyoming.

The trip was in vain.

Due to COVID-19 issues in the Broncos program, their Mountain West opener against Wyoming has been postponed, league office announced about 25 minutes before tipoff. The match is scheduled for Saturday at 14:00 at the Arena-Auditorium.

Then Saturday night, the league also postponed Boise State’s scheduled game at Utah State on Tuesday.

“This morning, members of the Boise State men’s basketball traveling troupe began showing symptoms of COVID-19,” said a statement from Boise State Athletics. “The program immediately started following the university’s testing protocol. Based on test results, Boise State’s latest health and safety guidelines and feedback from the local health department, it was decided that the team did not have the required number of participants to compete in the game.

“This determination was made in consultation with Wyoming and the Mountain West Conference in the most expedient manner in light of the circumstances. Updates on future games will be provided when a decision is made.”

If the matches cannot be rescheduled, they will be declared no contest.

For a league match to be played, a minimum of seven players and one coach must be available. A Boise State spokesman did not respond to questions about the number of players affected by the health and safety protocols.

On Friday, the league announced that Air Force at Fresno State men’s basketball game to be postponed due to COVID-19 concerns in the Bulldogs program. Fresno State lost 65-55 at Boise State on Tuesday, and forward Anthony Holland did not play due to health and safety protocols.

An athletics department source told Fresno Bee that most of the Fresno State players were out due to close contact protocol, and the team also had two injured players — guards Jemarl Baker and Destin Whitaker.

The Boise State Office of Public Health and Central District Health have adopted the CDC’s recommendations for quarantine and isolation. A positive test, regardless of vaccination status, requires five days of isolation. Individuals who have no symptoms or whose symptoms improve after five days will be allowed to end isolation, but they must continue to wear a surgical mask around other people for an additional five days.

For individuals with known exposure, the protocol depends on vaccination status and whether or not they are symptomatic. Individuals who are symptomatic and completed a series of Pfizer or Moderna vaccinations within the past six months (or the last two months for Johnson & Johnson) or who have received a booster should be tested. If negative, the individual must wear a surgical mask around others for 10 days and undergo the test on Day 5. Positive individuals follow the positive test protocol. Asymptomatic individuals who were encouraged or completed a series of vaccinations within the past six months are required to wear a surgical mask around others for 10 days and test on Day 5.

Symptomatic individuals who were not vaccinated, or were fully vaccinated more than six months ago and were not confirmed, should be tested and stay at home until results are received. Positive individuals follow the positive test protocol. Asymptomatic individuals who were not vaccinated, or were fully vaccinated more than six months ago and were not confirmed, should stay home for five days, undergo testing on Day 5 and continue to wear a surgical mask around others for an additional five days.

The Mountain West recently revised its 2021-22 game cancellation policy. There have now been eight combined men’s and women’s basketball games that have been canceled due to COVID-19.

Here are the league’s new policies:

• If the Mountain West contest cannot be played as scheduled due to one or both teams being unable to participate specifically due to COVID-19 concerns, efforts will be made to reschedule the match, if possible. If the game is unplayable and cannot be rescheduled, it will be canceled and considered no contest.
• For men’s and women’s basketball, a minimum of seven student-athletes, along with one countable coach, must be available for the institution to participate in the contest.
• If the institution falls below the set threshold and is unable to participate, the game will be canceled and considered no contest. A team may choose to participate with less than the minimum participant threshold at its sole discretion.
• If a team has the required number of participants and chooses not to compete, the game will be canceled and declared lost.
• A canceled Mountain West match will be recorded as a loss for the team that chose not to compete, and as a win for the scheduled opponent, for the purposes of conference standings, MW championship entrants and MW championship seeding only. According to the NCAA, this does not change an institution’s official win-loss record.
• It is recognized that state, county, and local guidelines and the state of the virus will always take precedence and may override conference thresholds or institutional decisions. In the event that government parameters require the game to be cancelled, it will be declared as no contest.

This story was originally published January 1, 2022 13:46.