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Top-ranked Gonzaga to play BYU on Thursday

By Zac Wassink | Last updated Jan 5, 2021 6:37 PM ET

The top-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs confirmed on Tuesday that they won't be facing the Santa Clara Broncos on Thursday because of COVID-19 issues within the Broncos.

Instead, the West Coast Conference shifted schedules to create a showdown between Gonzaga and the BYU Cougars set to occur on Thursday evening. BYU was originally supposed to face the Pacific Tigers on Thursday but couldn't due to COVID-19-related protocols impacting Pacific.

As Sean Walker noted for KSL.com, BYU previously had three consecutive games postponed because of COVID-19 concerns. The Cougars haven't competed since notching an 87-79 victory over the Weber State Wildcats on Dec. 23.

Gonzaga, meanwhile, improved to a perfect 10-0 on the season with a win over the San Francisco Dons last Saturday. According to the official BYU website, Gonzaga leads the country in offense and is averaging 96.2 points per game.

Per Jeff Borzello of ESPN, Gonzaga topped the NCAA's first NET rankings that were released on Monday.

Zac Wassink

Zac Wassink is a longtime sports news writer and PFWA member who began his career in 2006 and has had his work featured on Yardbarker, MSN, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. He is also a football and futbol aficionado who is probably yelling about Tottenham Hotspur at the moment and who chanted for Matt Harvey to start the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2015 World Series at Citi Field. You can find him on X at @ZacWassink

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