Oklahoma State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams won’t play in their respective Big 12 tournaments Thursday at the Sprint Center in Kansas City after the conference cancelled them and suspended all of its conference championships until April 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The move comes on the heels of the NBA suspending its operations Wednesday night after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert of the Jazz tested positive for coronavirus, which led to his team’s game at Oklahoma City being postponed before tipoff.
The MLS also suspended its season for 30 days, and multiple NCAA conferences have also cancelled their conference basketball tournaments.
The Big 12 announced prior to OSU’s thrilling 72-71 win against No. 8 seed Iowa State on Wednesday night that schools would be limited to 125 tickets for the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
The Cowboys and the top-seeded Kansas were scheduled to tip off at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, while the OSU women’s basketball was set to tip off at 6 p.m. against Oklahoma.
Update- March 12 at 4:34 p.m.
The Big 12 announced that all sporting events and recruiting events until at least March 29th.
The Big 12 Conference announces that beginning Friday, March 13, it is suspending all regular-season competitions, on- and off-campus recruiting, and out-of-season practices until Sunday, March 29. The suspension of these athletic-related activities does not include campus-based practices for in-season sports, strength and conditioning activities for all sports, and does not apply to teams and individuals participating in NCAA Championship competition. Earlier today the Conference announced the cancellation of Big 12 Championship events through April 15. {Big12Sports.com}
For Oklahoma State, this means that the opening of the New O’Brate stadium will be delayed.