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North Carolina’s basketball game versus UCLA on Saturday as part of the CBS Sports Classic has been canceled because of COVID issues within the Bruins’ program. Instead, the Tar Heels will face Kentucky, which had its game versus Ohio State in the same event canceled because of COVID issues with the Buckeyes’ program.
The game will tip at 5:30 EST on Saturday and air on CBS.
UCLA Coach Mick Cronin was placed in COVID protocol Wednesday and his team’s home game versus Alabama State was canceled less than an hour before tipoff. The schools were in discussions Thursday morning and into the afternoon regarding whether or not the game would be played, with UNC stressed against its 4 PM flight departure time for Las Vegas, which is where the game was scheduled to be played. It ended up leaving after 5 PM.
UCLA Men's Basketball Twitter account announced the cancellation at 10:06 am EST on Friday morning.
The Tar Heels and Wildcats faced each other last season in the CBS Sports Classic, with Carolina winning 75-63 in Cleveland. The game had no fan in attendance, not even families. Only essential personnel – teams, those with game-related responsibilities, and a handful of media – were allowed inside Rocket Mortgage Arena.
In that game, Armando Bacot led the Tar Heels with 14 points while Kerwin Walton scored 13 off the bench. Walton fueled a 12-1 Carolina run that turned a 48-42 UK lead into a 54-49 Tar Heels’ advantage.
Walton converted a pair of three-pointers in the sequence, which also included a floater by Puff Johnson, and a pair of free throws by Bacot and Garrison Brooks. Day’Ron Sharpe grabbed 11 rebounds that afternoon.
The No. 21 Wildcats are coming off a 66-62 loss last Saturday at Notre Dame, but before that had won seven consecutive games, though none of the games were versus Power 5 teams. UK dropped its season-opener, 79-71 to Duke, so it’s 0-2 versus ACC teams this season.
UNC has won five consecutive games since dropping a pair a month ago to Purdue and Tennessee at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. Among the Tar Heels’ wins in the stretch are by 21 points at home over Michigan and 79-62 at Georgia Tech.
UNC leads the all-time series between the schools with a 25-16 mark in head-to-head matchups. The blue blood rivals have met 19 times in the 2000s, with Carolina owning a 10-9 mark. Two of the matchups were in Elite 8 games, with the Wildcats winning in 2011 and the Tar Heels winning in 2017.
