The "1997 Arizona Wildcats" will face the "1995 UCLA Bruins" in a West Region matchup Tuesday night at GCU Arena but the matchup isn't a video game or any sort of historical interpretation.
Instead, the teams are two of the 20 made up of college prospects playing in the NCAA's regional camp at GCU this week. The 1997 Arizona squad will include 2021 point guard Jaleon Israel of Gilbert Higley High School, along with players from California, Florida, North Carolina and Oregon. The "Bruins" will feature players from all over the west, including a Hawaiian point guard.
For this year, at least, the West Region camp isn't likely to have prospects that the real Wildcats or Bruins are currently seeking. Many of top players in the classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022 are headed to USA Basketball's Junior National Team camp in Colorado while some others will be playing in Las Vegas club-ball events this week.
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA's senior vice president for basketball, said the USA Basketball camp won't be scheduled to conflict with the NCAA camps in the future while adding that some player losses to the Las Vegas events were expected this year.
“We have heard some anecdotes that some of the (club) programs are advising kids not to attend, which could be very disappointing," Gavitt said. "I think that speaks to some of the ills of the culture. But we’ll keep working at this and try to make it something prospects want to attend.”
We have a more in-depth look at the West Region camp ahead here. The rosters and schedules are attached as PDFs (games at GCU Arena are free and open to the public but others are not unless you are guested in by a player).
