If it was inevitable that Arizona and temporarily-Phoenix-based New Mexico State would try to schedule a basketball game this season, it was also probably inevitable that such a game would be called off.
As a frustrated NMSU coach Chris Jans noted Monday, speaking of the unusual year we are still stuck in for another few weeks, “it’s two thousand and 20.”
Arizona announced Monday it will replace a scheduled game against NMSU for Saturday with UTEP, since the Aggies had a positive COVID-19 test surface during a trip over the weekend to Santa Cruz, Calif., forcing NMSU to cancel two games there and Saturday’s game at McKale Center.
It’s not clear if assistant coach Jason Terry will be with UA for the game against UTEP. Terry wasn’t on the Wildcats’ bench Monday against NAU after receiving an “inconclusive” COVID-19 test result, the school announced via Twitter 14 minutes before the game.
UA said Terry would be retested Tuesday. If the test is a confirmed positive, and enough players were deemed to have 15 minutes of cumulative close contact with Terry since his previous test, the Wildcats could miss at least their next two games.
It is the first time this season the Wildcats have reported a COVID-19 issue, though most of their games have been rescheduled over the first two weeks of the season.
New Mexico State might have had barely enough time to play Saturday’s game if it followed new CDC guidelines that allow for asymptomatic individuals to end quarantines after seven days if accompanied by a negative test. But Jans said he wasn’t surprised Arizona pivoted to UTEP.
“If I’m on the other end of the spectrum with a game coming up against a team that had a positive, I’m moving forward and figuring out who else I can play rather than sit around and wait, then not be able to play,” Jans said. “I think that’s kind of the thought process there.”
Not surprisingly, UTEP had also backed out on the Wildcats from a scheduled Nov. 29 game because of its own COVID-19 issues, but now the Miners are back on the schedule. Saturday’s UA-UTEP game will be played at 4 p.m..
Arizona’s game Monday against NAU, meanwhile, was also a rescheduled date since a positive Lumberjack test struck down their planned Nov. 25 appearance at McKale.
Arizona’s announcement Monday to swap out UTEP for NMSU came only six days after the Wildcats announced they had added NMSU for Saturday, since both teams needed games at that point and the Aggies have been headquartering themselves nearby at the Arizona Grand Resort and Spa in Phoenix because of health restrictions in their home state.
Meanwhile, the Aggies took off on their ill-fated trip to California and were forced to bus back overnight on Saturday in not one, but two buses: One carrying the positive-testing person and those contact-traced to that person, and the other bus carrying all the negative-testers.
Upon arriving back in Phoenix early Sunday morning, Jans said, the Aggies were tested and they also had tests Monday. While they wait for the latest results, they remain prohibited from holding any basketball activities, even solitary shooting drills inside their makeshift hotel-ballroom court.
