If Dan Majerle had his way, tonightβs Grand Canyon-Arizona game would be not only the first of many games in a renewed series but also part of an in-state round-robin, where GCU, NAU, ASU and UA all play each other.
Maybe even with some of those teams occasionally playing at GCU Arena, he says, or Phoenixβs Talking Stick Arena.
As of now, thatβs not happening. ASU still wonβt schedule the Antelopes, even though an informal Pac-12 boycott of GCU in 2013 has dissolved, and Majerle said he believes the sole reason for that is the ASU president.
βI think itβs just Dr. (Michael) Crow,β Majerle said. βWeβre the only other Division I team (in the Phoenix area), weβre right down the road, and I think weβve done a great job. But I donβt have any ill will toward ASU.β
While the Wildcats may offer another one-time game contract to GCU, as they did for tonightβs game, they might have little to gain by scheduling a game at GCU or a home-and-away series at this point.
When asked last week about the possibility of playing at GCU, as Louisville did, UA coach Sean Miller said this:
βWe play them his year for the first time. We respect them. Dan Majerle was a tremendous player and heβs doing a great job with their program. Weβre gonna play them and when we get through this year maybe weβll revisit that.β
UA is paying GCU $75,000 for making a one-time appearance for tonightβs game. Thatβs about $15,000 less than a typical UA payment for a Division I opponent, but GCU obviously has fewer travel expenses to cover.
Majerle has also scheduled the Antelopes at Duke and Penn State this season, but said collecting the guarantees from road games has βnothing to do with" his budget, that the program is seeking to build itself in part via the competition and exposure from big-time games.
Our main advance story today looked into GCUβs unique for-profit structure and how basketball fits into it. The schoolβs publicly traded stock has well outpaced the stock market indexes since Majerle was hired in 2013.
The Arizona Republic noted that tonight's game is yet another leap for the Lopes into the national spotlight.
Arizona will debut its "Desert Ops" uniforms tonight.
Here's the school-produced game notes from Grand Canyon and Arizona, and the weekly Pac-12 notes/stats.
Utah is expecting two significant additions at the close of the fall semester.
Playing Aaron Holiday off the bench has worked out pretty well so far for UCLA.
A broken Oregon State team is challenging itself to turn things around.
