Saying it 'wants to play games,' Arizona OK with turning down possible forfeit by Washington

CORVALLIS, Ore. — After COVID-19 issues forced Washington to back out of games with Arizona and UCLA over the weekend, the Bruins accepted an automatic victory from a forfeit, but the Wildcats did not.

Why?

Money would appear to be the obvious answer: Arizona was scheduled to host the Huskies and has booked about $400,000 in average ticket revenue per home game in recent non-COVID seasons, while UCLA was scheduled to play at Seattle and thus wasn’t getting ticket revenue anyway.

But Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke said finances were not a “primary driver” of the decision to agree to a Jan. 25 rescheduled game with the Huskies. He said it was more about being a good league partner and that the Jan. 25 date was “the right time” since it came during a week when UA was scheduled to face only ASU.

“We want to play the games,” Heeke said Sunday at Gill Coliseum, after UA beat Oregon State 90-65. “When all three parties came together — the conference, ourselves and Washington — we always wanted to try to find a way to play the game. That was our goal all along.”

A request seeking comment from the Pac-12 was unsuccessful.

Heeke said there were “different circumstances” that may have led to UCLA’s decision. Last season, the Bruins were forced to make a return trip to play at Oregon after traveling there earlier in the season for a game that was eventually called off when a referee tested positive.

With the Huskies out last weekend, the Bruins moved to 2-0 in conference play and into a first-place tie with USC with the forfeit, while UA remained at 1-0 .

To get credit for beating Washington at home now, UA will have to beat the Huskies just two days after a road game at Cal. They’ll then face an ASU team on Jan. 29 that will have three more days of rest to prepare, and UA will now have no single-game weeks after Jan. 8.

In addition, just playing the low-rated Huskies might hurt the Wildcats’ power ratings even if they win.

But there’s also this: It’s fun. For players, coaches and fans alike.

“We want to play games. I love games. That’s why you come” here, Lloyd said. “And we’re not trying to dodge anybody. We’re excited to have an opportunity to play them. I mean, we don’t want to forfeit. I don’t think that does anything for anybody.”

Last season, there would have been no choice. The Wildcats had eight opponents cancel or reschedule on them because of COVID issues, and relaxed Pac-12 rules called for a rescheduling or no-contest if a game could not be played, not a forfeit.

This season, the old rules are back in effect and cancellations can lead to forfeits unless all parties agree otherwise or Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff steps in.

“I think we were all hoping this COVID thing was behind us now and obviously it’s not,” Lloyd said. “Maybe it would have been nice in hindsight if there were a couple pockets in the conference schedule were that were built in for some makeup games, but there wasn’t, so now you have to get creative. I’m sure that’s it’s gonna be a tough couple of weeks. But we love playing games and up for the challenge.”

Heeke said the Pac-12 ultimately chose the Jan. 25 date for rescheduling, which turned out to be the least imposing date on UA’s remaining schedule.

The Huskies will also face slightly more of a disadvantage: While UA faces Cal in the afternoon of Jan. 23, meaning the Wildcats can return home via charter that evening, the Huskies won’t play at Oregon until 8 p.m. Arizona time the same night — then have to travel straight to Tucson.

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Washington will then return home to host Colorado just two days after stopping over at McKale Center.

“For the two teams involved, it provided a good opportunity,” Heeke said. “Both of us are on the road, both of us come to Tucson and get one day off and then go. It was the same from that standpoint. I thought that was good for the conference, and good for both institutions. That was it first and foremost.“

Arizona at No. 3 in first NET rating

UA was placed at No. 3 in the NCAA’s first NET rankings of the season, behind only No. 1 Purdue and No. 2 LSU, higher than the Wildcats stand in the major computer metrics.

The Wildcats rank No. 12 in Kenpom and ESPN’s BPI, while they are No. 6 in Sagarin.

Arizona (7-0) remained at No. 11 in the AP Top 25 poll.

Mathurin takes Pac-12 honors

Arizona sophomore wing Bennedict Mathurin picked up his first Pac-12 Player of the Week award Monday after collecting 29 points and six rebounds in the Wildcats’ win at Oregon State.

Mathurin, who shot 4 of 9 from 3-point range and 11 for 18 overall, received the award over USC’s Isaiah Mobley and Utah guard Both Gach.

Mobley had 21 points and 13 rebounds against Utah and hit a game-tying 3-pointer late in the Trojans’ win at Washington State, while Gach averaged 23.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists in the Utes’ loss at USC and win over Cal at home.

Mathurin scored 31 points at OSU last season, but was edged out for those ensuing weekly awards by two Colorado players: McKinley Wright was named Pac-12 Player of the Week and Jabari Walker was Freshman of the Week.

Lloyd’s staff under budget

When Lloyd was hired in April, he was given a $1.05 million budget to pay three assistant coaches and $285,000 for support staff.

According to contracts obtained by the Star through a public records request, the support staff wound up being contracted for $65,000 more — but his three assistant coaches are actually $155,000 under their budget.

Therefore, Heeke said it was not a problem.

“It’s all coming out of the same bucket,” Heeke said. “Tommy and I make those decisions and we talk about what he needs to do staffing-wise. When you initially make an agreement with a new head coach, you generally outline the parameters by which you need about this much for an assistant pool. If we make a decision that we want to spend a little more or a little less, that’s fine.”

Of UA’s assistant coaches, associate head coach Jack Murphy is contracted for $335,000, assistant Steve Robinson is at $285,000 and assistant Riccardo Fois is at $275,000.

Of UA’s support staffers, UA has special assistant TJ Benson at $125,000, player relations director Jason Gardner at $100,000, advanced scouting director Ken Nakagawa at $75,000 and player development director Rem Bakamus at $50,000. Managers, graduate assistants and administrative assistants do not count in the support staff salary pool.