Arizona will host Georgia Southern on Nov. 29 at McKale Center instead of holding a home game against Texas Southern on Nov. 28.
According to Ryan Reynolds, UA's director of basketball operations, the change came after Texas Southern coach Mike Davis left and the program no longer wanted to play the game.
Davis, who left to become Detroit Mercy's head coach, was known for playing a difficult nonconference schedule full of road games in order to raise money and help his team's ratings. Davis took Texas Southern to McKale Center in 2016-17, for an 85-63 UA win.
The change will give the Wildcats a full week to rest and practice following their participation in the Nov. 19-21 Maui Invitational, and it could also give them a slight boost in their strength of schedule ratings.
"It was late for us because we usually try to get done in May or June," Reynolds said. "But I'm happy we got them (Georgia Southern)."
Under the now-discarded RPI, Texas Southern finished 212 last season (it was 243 in Kenpom) while Georgia Southern was 143 (152 in Kenpom). Texas Southern won the SWAC's automatic bid and was a No. 16 NCAA Tournament seed last season before Davis left.
Most times remain TBA for UA's upcoming schedule, as are the exact dates for Pac-12 games (they should be released within a month).
As of now, here's now Arizona's schedule looks:
Oct. 14 RED-BLUE GAME (scrimmage) 12 p.m.
Oct. 30 WESTERN NEW MEXICO (exhibition)
Nov. 4 CHAMINADE (exhibition)
Nov. 7 HOUSTON BAPTIST
Nov. 11 CAL POLY
Nov. 14 UTEP
Nov. 19 Iowa State (at Lahaina, Maui) 7 p.m., ESPNU
Nov. 20 Gonzaga or Illinois (at Lahaina, Maui) at 8:30 p.m. (ESPN) or 3 p.m. (ESPN2).
Nov. 21 Maui Invitational final game vs. Duke, San Diego State, Xavier or Auburn) TBD
Nov. 29 GEORGIA SOUTHERN
Dec 2 at UConn (Hartford)
Dec. 6 UTAH VALLEY
Dec. 9 at Alabama
Dec. 15 BAYLOR
Dec. 19 MONTANA
Dec. 22 UC DAVIS
Jan. 2-6: COLORADO, UTAHΒ
Jan. 9-13: at Stanford, at Cal
Jan. 16-20: OREGON, OSU
Jan. 23-27: at UCLA, at USC
Jan. 30-Feb. 3: at ASU
Feb. 6-10: WSU, WASHINGTON
Feb. 13-17: at Colorado, Utah
Feb. 20-24: STANFORD, CAL
Feb. 27-March 3: at Oregon, at OSU
March 6-9: ASU
