Only a month after Cal State Bakersfield rattled off 17 straight second-half points to give Arizona a scare last season at McKale, the Wildcats offered the Roadrunners $90,000 to come back this season.
For UA coach Sean Miller, the Roadrunners are exactly the sort of home “guarantee” opponent he wants – a potential NCAA Tournament team from a mid-major conference that is well coached and has an RPI in the mid to low 100s, so as not to hurt UA’s RPI.
“We’re playing them because we think we’re giving ourselves a quality opponent,” Miller said. “It’s a chance to win a home game against a team that will be playing for an NCAA tournament berth so we’re challenging our team in a home setting.
“As a matter of fact, it’s not a comfortable game to play,” Miller said. “Lot of respect for (Bakersfield coach Rod Barnes), lot of respect for their team. Everybody here knows what they did to us a year ago.”
Bakersfield, however, lost three starters off the team that reached the NIT semifinal last season and the Roadrunners are shooting just 28.3 percent from 3-point range over two games so far this season.
The Pac-12 task force formed in the wake of the federal investigation has started looking into recommendations for college basketball.
Zion Williamson, Simi Shittu and Bol Bol are among highly rated players in the class of 2018 not to sign during the spring signing period. There are no public indications UA commit Shareef O'Neal has at this point, and UA coach Sean Miller has declined to discuss recruiting until after Thursday's game.
