ESPNU forced Arizona to play Grand Canyon at 9 p.m., on a Wednesday in mid-December. The season’s smallest crowd, 13,477 (about 1,000 below McKale Center capacity) attended.
On Wednesday, Fox Sports 1 bullied the Pac-12 into scheduling the Arizona-Stanford game for a 9 p.m. tip. A capacity crowd of 14,644 attended, but many in that group were unfamiliar faces, first-time attendees using gifted tickets by those who chose not to be part of the Sun Don’t Shine Series.
Fox Sports 1 jammed a triple-header into its Wednesday night programming, preceding the UA-Stanford game with DePaul-Xavier and Providence-Seton Hall. The Arizona game ended at 11:07 p.m.
Strangely but not unpredictably, the only games on Wednesday’s Pac-12 calendar both started at 9. As dictated by ESPNU, Cal completed its victory at Arizona State at about 11:15 p.m. The Bears then had a choice of flying home to Berkeley, California, or remaining in Arizona for the 69 remaining hours before Saturday’s 8 p.m., game at McKale Center.
The Bears chose to stay in Arizona and stay warm, if somewhat bored.
It’s not the best way to treat college athletes and those who pay large sums to buy tickets, but it’s the way of life in 21st century college hoops.
Saturday’s comparatively late start (8 p.m.) at McKale for what has evolved into a Very Meaningful Game isn’t popular among those who buy tickets or watch on ESPN2. But it pays the bills and there is no escaping the trend of later starts.
By comparison, my selection of the 10 Most Defining Games in McKale Center History had widely varying start times. Here’s the list and how times have changed and, sometimes, not changed:
