COVID-19 began poking holes in college basketball’s opening week Monday, and Arizona was not spared.
The Wildcats announced that their scheduled season opener Wednesday against NAU was canceled “due to a positive COVID-19 case within the NAU men’s basketball program as well as ensuing contact tracing and mitigation protocols.”
Similarly, Duke announced Monday its opener with Gardner-Webb would be postponed because of a positive test within the Gardner-Webb program, while Baylor pulled out of the Empire Classic and a game with ASU is off after Bears coach Scott Drew tested positive.
As it was Monday, the Sun Devils still boarded a plane for Connecticut to play in the event without knowing who they will be playing.
Meanwhile, another Pac-12 school, Washington State, is planning to host Texas Southern on Wednesday without coach Kyle Smith, who has also tested positive.
All together, according to CBS Sports, 16 games across the country have been canceled through Friday.
“Everyone in college basketball is living 10 minutes at a time,” said Ryan Reynolds, UA’s director of basketball operations.
UA said its game with NAU, part of a contract in which the Lumberjacks were scheduled to be the Wildcats’ first opponent for the next three seasons, might be made up if possible but the Wildcats and NAU don’t appear to have many common open periods on their nonconference schedules as of now.
UA has the weekend of Dec. 11-13 open after it and Illinois mutually agreed to cancel a game at Champaign, Illinois, but Northern Arizona is hosting UC Riverside on Dec. 10 and traveling to play at Gonzaga on Dec. 12.
As of Monday afternoon, the Wildcats were now scheduled to open their season on Friday against Grambling State at 3 p.m. inside McKale Center, then face UTEP on Sunday.
“The news of this cancellation is very disappointing to student-athletes, coaches and fans,” UA’s statement said of the NAU game. “However, health and safety must remain our top priorities as we move forward this season.”
While Pac-12 teams have the benefit of daily testing to more quickly identify and potentially reduce COVID testing/tracing disruptions, the NCAA has only issued guidelines to all programs that “suggest” teams and officials test three times a week on non-consecutive days.
Visiting teams at McKale are expected to be tested using Arizona’s rapid-testing equipment during the day of a game, and they can count that as their third weekly test if needed.
Though it would have been on extremely short notice, the Wildcats could have potentially made a substitute date with New Mexico State, which is now based in Phoenix and doesn’t play until Friday at Arizona Christian.
The Aggies are living at the Arizona Grand Resort for at least five weeks, and coach Chris Jans said they have created their own “bubble” within the hotel, even having a basketball court installed for them in a ballroom.
But the Aggies are still struggling to find games, with staffers even keeping an eye on the news to see who has had cancellations elsewhere.
“We make calls to see (other teams) are thinking,” Jans said. “It’s a constant jigsaw puzzle. It’s a very difficult puzzle more than most years. It’s not a daily meeting; it’s ongoing.
“Sometimes I feel like a kid in a candy store — (I’ll ask staffers) ‘we got anything new?’ ”
Meanwhile, WSU assistant coach Jim Shaw said during a news conference in Pullman on Monday that Smith is constantly piping in his input remotely, even though it is Shaw who will be the acting head coach Wednesday.
So the instruction may be normal, and the practices close to normal, in a time that is anything but normal.
“The biggest thing you can do is just keep reminding guys that this is very, very unusual time,” Shaw said, “and just being able to play is a blessing — and don’t do anything to compromise that.”
