BYU won’t be playing in the Jerry Colangelo Classic in the upcoming college basketball season, as the third annual event was postponed one year.
The Cougars were scheduled to play Arizona State on Dec. 19 in a one-day quadrupleheader at the Talking Stick Resort Arena, home of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury.
Other games that day were scheduled to include three other West Coast Conference teams, including Gonzaga playing Texas Tech, San Francisco facing Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona matching up with San Diego.
Instead, the event has been postponed to Dec. 18, 2021, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“The Basketball Hall of Fame has been proud to host the Jerry Colangelo Classic in Phoenix the past two seasons and we’re obviously disappointed the global pandemic has forced us to reschedule our 2020 event,” John L. Doleva, president and CEO of the Basketball Hall of Fame, said in a news release. “Nonetheless, we have every intention of returning in 2021 and are very excited to utilize the many recent arena enhancements to offer our fans a fantastic experience.”
Details concerning BYU’s nonconference schedule are still coming together amid the COVID-19 pandemic and with practice already started. The first day of the 2020-21 NCAA basketball season is Nov. 25, and UVU recently announced a Nov. 28 matchup with BYU at the Marriott Center.
The Cougars are scheduled to open WCC play on Dec. 31 at Pepperdine. The Oregonian’s John Canzano first reported that the league is exploring creating a bubble for WCC play in Las Vegas, with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reporting on Oct. 25 that a decision would be made in the next two to three weeks.