Arizona's nonconference season will end almost before it got started.
Wednesday night's game between the undefeated Arizona Wildcats and California Baptist was canceled because of a positive COVID-19 test within the CBU program "and ensuring tracing and mitigation protocols," the UA said. The announcement was made at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, 2 1/2 hours before scheduled tipoff.
The UA did not announce plans to reschedule.
"The news of the cancellation is very disappointing to student-athletes, coaches and fans," the UA said in a news release. "However, health and safety must remain our top priorities as we move forward."
Arizona's nonconference schedule has been a mess, though it's been no fault of the Wildcats.
Their season opener against NAU was rescheduled because of a positive COVID-19 test with the Lumberjacks. UTEP, which was brought in as a replacement for virus-affected Sam Houston State, backed out of its Nov. 29 game in Tucson only to end up back on the Wildcats' schedule Dec. 12. The Miners replaced New Mexico State, which canceled because of an outbreak on the team. Arizona squeezed in a game against Eastern Washington, which replaced Northern Colorado after the Bears were forced to cancel because of the virus.
The UA is scheduled to play just one more nonconference game, Tuesday against Montana.
The Wildcats' next game will be Saturday's Pac-12 opener against Stanford. That game has been moved to Santa Cruz, California, because of restrictions in and around Palo Alto. The game will now tipoff at 5 p.m. and air on Pac-12 Arizona. The Wildcats' originally scheduled conference opener against Colorado was moved to Dec. 28 because of contact tracing on the Buffaloes' team.
