With COVID-19 issues already impacting the conference race, the Pac-12 is proactively moving Arizonaβs second game against ASU from March 6 to next Monday.
The change means UA will face ASU as scheduled on Thursday in Tempe while then turning around to host the Sun Devils on Monday at 9 p.m. at McKale Center. Thursdayβs game is scheduled to be carried by ESPN while Mondayβs late game will be on ESPN2, and part of its βBig Mondayβ coverage.
The Pac-12 initially scheduled all its teams to play their geographic rivals on Saturday, March 6, allowing for at least one other game to be made up earlier that week, but the conference has now has been asking teams to move up the March 6 games in order to create an entirely open week to end the regular season.
Colorado and Utah already moved up their March 6 game in Salt Lake City to Jan. 11, with the Buffs cramming in a 65-58 win before heading home to beat Stanford and California last weekend.
UAβs move partly explains why the Wildcats did not elect to host a nonconference game on Monday, since they would have been facing up to seven games over a 20-day period if they did so.
In addition, because Arizona had to travel back from Oregon State on Friday instead of Thursday night, UA operations director Ryan Reynolds said the Wildcats had to take Saturday or Sunday as an NCAA-mandated off day, making preparation time limited if they had tried to play on Monday.
Doubling up its ASU games means the last scheduled game as of now on UAβs schedule is a Feb. 27 home date with Washington. So far Arizona has a postponed game at Oregon to make up and also still has a nonconference spot open but it is possible the Ducks might be asked to play UA and/or ASU twice during the Feb. 11-13 weekend that the Ducks are already scheduled to visit Arizona.
That precedent of replacing a postponed home game with a second road contest in a series has already been set. Oregon is being asked to play at UCLA twice, Jan. 28 and Feb. 1, during a long weekend in Los Angeles while also playing USC in between.
Of course, even if the Wildcats get in that second game with Oregon before the last week of the regular season, chances are good that there will be others to make up by then.
Arizona has reported no COVID-19 issues itself but had six nonconference games moved or postponed while its Dec. 2 opener against Colorado was moved to Dec. 28 and its Dec. 19 game at Stanford was moved to Santa Cruz, California, before Oregon backed out last week.
ASU, meanwhile, had its Dec. 22 game with Utah at Tempe postponed because of the Utesβ COVID issues, then the Sun Devils didnβt make the Washington State-Washington trip over New Yearβs weekend because of their own COVID problems β and also missed a game at Oregon last Thursday.
Wildcats freshman Bennedict Mathurin, seen here against CSU Bakersfield earlier this season, had 31 points on 10-of-12 shooting in his only game last week, a 98-64 victory at Oregon State. He is averaging 12.0 points per game for the season.
Buffaloes beat out Mathurin for honors
Colorado point guard McKinley Wright was named the Pac-12βs Player of the Week on Monday and teammate Jabari Walker the Freshman of the Week after they led the Buffaloes to three wins last week.
The CU players beat out UA freshmen Benedict Mathurin, who scored 31 points in UAβs 98-64 win at Oregon State last Thursday, and USCβs Evan Mobley, who averaged 17.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in USCβs wins over UC Riverside, Washington and Washington State.
Both Mathurin and Mobley were nominated by their schools for both weekly awards.
While Colorado picked up a road win at Utah, then beat California and Stanford at home, the Wildcats played only one game thanks to COVID-19 issues with Oregon that postponed their scheduled Feb. 16 game at Eugene.
In the Buffsβ three games, Wright averaged 12.0 points and 8.0 assists while Walker had a breakout week in which he averaged 16.3 points and 9.7 rebounds.
Mathurin was named the Pac-12βs Freshman of the Week on Jan. 4 after collecting 24 points and 11 rebounds at Washington State, and jumped into the school freshman record chart at OSU after shooting 10 for 12 from the field and hitting 6 of 7 3-pointers.
The six 3s tied an Arizona freshman record, Mathurinβs 85.7% 3-point shooting set a new UA freshman record, while his 83.3% overall field-goal percentage was the second-best ever by a freshman.
Mathurin, who was making his first start of the season at OSU, also became just the third freshman in Division I to score 31 or more points a game so far this season.
Overall for the season, the freshman from Montreal is averaging 12.0 points and 4.8 rebounds while leading the Wildcats in 3-point shooting percentage (48.8) and leading all perimeter players in field-goal shooting percentage (52.7).
Over his past four games, Mathurin is averaging 18.5 points while shooting 63.8% overall from the field, 60% from 3-point range and 84.2% from the free-throw line.
Bruins enter Top 25
At 7-0 in Pac-12 play so far, UCLA jumped into the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday at No. 23, while Colorado and USC were just outside.
Oregon remains the highest-ranked Pac-12 team (21), though the Ducks didnβt play ASU or UA last week because of their pause. Colorado received the 27th most points in voting while USC was 30th.
No other Pac-12 teams received any votes but Arizona is ranked No. 31 in the NET, 29 in Kenpom and 41 in Sagarin.
