Wildcats won't play in LA next year, and it doesn't make sense

Arizona won’t play basketball games at UCLA and USC in 2017-18, a trip that could be the most difficult weekend in college basketball. Trojans coach Andy Enfeld has a roster so good it’s likely to expect USC to win 30 games. The Pac-12’s rotating basketball schedule — each school misses one geographical twosome and a home series against two traveling partners each season — doesn’t always have a rhythm to it. Unfortunately, if the two-year cycles of “misses” continues UCLA and USC won’t play at McKale Center in 2018-19. Commissioner Larry Scott’s system isn’t easy to follow. Arizona last missed the Cal-Stanford trip in 2013 and then missed the UCLA-USC trip in 2015. It should be Arizona’s turn to miss the Bay Area weekend. Additionally, it wasn’t the best week for the Pac-12 commissioner: The former national-class tennis player at Harvard stages a ping-pong championship at the Pac-12 headquarters in San Francisco each year. He lets his hair down and plays (very competitively) with much younger staffers. This year Scott was eliminated in the semifinals. 

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now