Mick Cronin Enters COVID-19 Protocols, UCLA Men's Basketball's Game Against Alabama State Called Off

The Bruins' contest versus the Hornets was initially supposed to go on on as scheduled, but was called off an hour before tip-off.

The Bruins and Hornets will not be facing off in Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday.

A few hours after it was announced coach Mick Cronin would be unavailable due to COVID-19 protocols, UCLA men's basketball's game against Alabama State was called off. The decision was made at 7 p.m., just one hour before the game was scheduled to tip off.

Associate head coach Darren Savino was going to coach the Bruins with Cronin out.

The future status of the Alabama State game is unknown, in regards to if it will ultimately be postponed or canceled. UCLA is scheduled to play North Carolina in Las Vegas on Saturday, but now that contest's viability is up in the air as well.

UPDATE: UCLA's home game against Alabama State on Wednesday, Dec. 15 will not be played as scheduled due to COVID-19 protocols. pic.twitter.com/nrbAhyyxxw

— UCLA Men’s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) December 16, 2021

After going through the entirety of the 2020-2021 campaign without having issues with COVID-19, it took one month for UCLA's latest season to get impacted by the virus. The Bruins did have multiple games delayed or canceled last year, but those were at the fault of Oregon, Long Beach State and the Pac-12 referees.

UCLA had a game scheduled for Dec. 5 canceled because of COVID-19 issues within the Washington program, and the Huskies ultimately forfeited that matchup after the programs were unable to find a mutually agreeable makeup date. 

According to a report from Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times, all of the Bruins' non-injured players were going to be active Wednesday had the game been played as scheduled.

Cronin spoke on COVID-19's continued impact on college basketball after his team's win over Colorado on Dec. 1, when reports were first coming out about Washington's game against UCLA possibly getting called off.

"When it comes to the COVID stuff, pray everybody's OK, hope it just doesn't become a massive problem," said coach Mick Cronin. "It's tough."

Cronin recognized the problem was bigger than just college basketball – and bigger than sports, ultimately – but he pointed towards the deteriorating situation in the pros as another example of why players, coaches, fans and spectators needed to get vaccinated and help put an end to the pandemic.

"It seems to be becoming a problem – I've seen a lot of NBA guys dealing with it," Cronin said. "It's unfortunate, we all need to be careful – everybody get their extra shot, do everything you can."

Cronin missed 25 games of the 2014-2015 season with Cincinnati as a result of an aneurysm, during which Larry Davis served as the interim head coach and Savino moved up to interim associate head coach.

In this instance, Savino would have become the temporary head coach against the Hornets, but the long-term status of Cronin and the team's overall test results will determine how the situation plays out moving forward.

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