The University of Utah women’s basketball team’s regular season is over, and its participation in the Pac-12 Tournament later this week is now in doubt.
Sunday morning, less than two hours before the Utes’ regular-season finale was scheduled to tip off against Colorado at the Huntsman Center, the athletic department announced the game was canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Utah program.
The news release gave no indication of a program pause or shutdown, but the timing of the cancellation puts Utah’s postseason in doubt. The Utes are locked into the No. 10 seed at the Pac-12 Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Michelob Ultra Arena, formerly Mandalay Bay Events Center.
After the cancelation announcement, Utah provided a short statement to The Salt Lake Tribune regarding the Pac-12 Tournament.
“A decision regarding the Pac-12 Tournament has not been determined yet. We are in the preliminary contact-tracing process and updates will be made available at a later time.”
Utah’s travel timeline to Las Vegas this week is still under consideration.
The Pac-12 previously announced that in the event one or more teams cannot play in the conference tournament, the bracket will be modified and the remaining teams reseeded. The bracket will become final on Tuesday at noon. If a team needs to drop out after Tuesday at noon, the bracket will not be modified and the opponent of the team dropping out will receive a bye into the next round of the tournament.
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