The atmosphere of the Red-Blue Game every year can’t be matched anywhere else in the Pac-12. That’s why other conference schools don’t even attempt to compete with UA’s.

 Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star/

As Arizona’s director of basketball operations, Ryan Reynolds works months in advance, even years in some cases, executing contracts that make up the Wildcats’ nonconference schedules.

On Thursday evening, when the Pac-12 announced its teams will join the new NCAA start date of Nov. 25, Reynolds was essentially asked to rip up the 2020-21 version and start over.

Quickly.

“I’m on my fourth full battery charge,” Reynolds said 24 hours later, having spoken to each of the Wildcats’ initially scheduled nonconference opponents and dipping into the now-frenzied world of multi-team events (MTEs).

Initially scheduled to play in the NIT Season Tip-Off at Brooklyn, New York, over Thanksgiving, the Wildcats now might move with that event to join other MTEs in Orlando. Or they might instead sign up for a regional “pod” of teams from other Western conferences at a closer site such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles or Phoenix.

“All those are possible,” Reynolds said. “A lot of schools are also thinking of just doing their own.”

That includes Arizona, which by holding its own “MTE” could schedule itself to play its entire nonconference season at McKale Center. As it is, UA will likely keep many of its nonconference single-game home opponents.

“If we can play a majority of our games at McKale or even Phoenix and avoid as much travel as we can, that’s good for all of us,” Reynolds said. “It’s good on the budget and easier on the players.”

Arizona and its Pac-12 counterparts will shape all of that around what is expected to still be a 20-game conference season.

Immediately after announcing that the Pac-12 will allow football and basketball games in November, commissioner Larry Scott said he was jumping on a call with the league’s basketball coaches to start discussing how it might all play out.

“We’re kind of all in the same boat, trying to answer those questions,” Scott said. “How many non conference games there will be versus conference, and what the role is if any, MTEs, will have in our schedule this year.”

Here’s a look at five of the key questions for Arizona’s schedule:

1. What about the Red-Blue Game? While Arizona’s annual preseason celebration hasn’t been officially canceled, there’s very little chance it will be held in any form.

The NCAA says no exhibitions or closed scrimmages against other teams can be held before Nov. 25, and the Pac-12 said Thursday that no fans will be allowed at campus events until at least January.

Since the Red-Blue Game is technically a practice, it could conceivably be played privately and streamed online. But it is highly unlikely the Wildcats would want to give their upcoming opponents a free preview of what they’ll have this season — especially considering coach Sean Miller will be putting 10 new players on the court.

From the program’s perspective, the Red-Blue Game is a primarily about recruiting. And since the NCAA has extended its in-person recruiting ban until January, there may be no point of holding one.

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The Wildcats will likely have a few of their usual preseason intrasquad scrimmages, complete with officials, but those will be closed.

2. What MTEs will the Wildcats play in? The NIT Season Tip-Off is expected to move to Orlando, but that doesn’t mean the Wildcats will go with it.

Doing so would mean paying for a $150,000 charter flight, plus hotel, meal and testing costs that will likely dwarf the $50,000 stipend that organizer ESPN Events is scheduled to pay Arizona.

It also could mean the rebuilding Wildcats will have to open their season against a Top 15 team in Texas Tech or one of the other scheduled NIT participants, Cincinnati and St. John’s.

However, since eight or nine different MTEs might be held together in Orlando, Arizona could pick up some additional games with teams in other events to make the trip more worthwhile.

ESPN Events has declined multiple requests from the Star for comment about the NIT Season Tip-Off, but the game contract appears to leave room for either side to back out under the current conditions. Signed in November 2018, the contract’s “force majeure” clause says that ESPN Events should use “commercially reasonable efforts” to reschedule games canceled by acts of God, government restrictions or emergencies and that UA should make reasonable efforts to compete at the rescheduled time. There is no mention of what happens if the event is moved.

Arizona’s established relationship with ESPN Events could allow it to wiggle out of the NIT if it determines a regional pod or its own MTE at McKale Center is a better route.

“It’s still kind of a work in progress,” Reynolds said.

3. What about the single nonconference games? Arizona’s original 31-game schedule featured nine nonconference games in addition to the two NIT games and a 20-game Pac-12 schedule. Four games must now be eliminated for UA to meet the NCAA’s maximum of 27 games for 2020-21.

Arizona’s nine originally scheduled nonconference games can be lumped into three groups: The two “return” games of two-year home-and-home agreements (at Gonzaga and at Illinois), the four pre-Nov. 25 one-time “guarantee” games and the three guarantee games in December.

(Guarantee or “buy” games are one-time single games in which an opponent is paid a guarantee in lieu of a share in gate and/or television revenue. UA is paying those teams between $90,000-$95,000 this season.)

Gonzaga coach Mark Few told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that the UA-Gonzaga game will likely be moved to a future season, and Reynolds said the Illinois game remains in a “holding pattern” and may be postponed in part because of the Illini’s other obligations.

Games against Loyola Marymount and Wyoming were contracted after COVID-19 hit, and thus include a “travel and play restrictions” clause that says if there is any modification in the 2020-21 schedule by the NCAA or the teams’ respective conferences, both sides will make efforts to reschedule.

As a result, Reynolds said those games will likely be moved to a future season. The force majeure clauses in the NAU and Northern Colorado contracts say that neither school is liable if there is a war, disaster or “order of any government, court or regulatory body having jurisdiction” preventing the game to be played.

But the fuzziness of that language could be a moot point, since Reynolds says both games may be moved into December. Besides, athletic director Dave Heeke indicated, nobody is playing hardball with the contracts at this point.

“Everyone understands the unique circumstances that exist, so we’re working with those folks,” Heeke said. “We want to make sure we can somehow play at some point, whether it’s this year (or) in the future. … We have good relationships with the folks that we schedule with.”

Reynolds said all three December “guarantee games” will probably be played as scheduled or with slightly modified dates. They are set for Dec. 9 (Cal State Bakersfield), Dec. 16 (Cal Baptist) and Dec. 22 (Montana).

4. How’s the testing going to work? The NCAA on Friday issued guidelines for basketball teams to test three times a week during the season, but the Pac-12 may do it more often than that.

The Pac-12 is expected to soon receive technology allowing rapid-result daily testing and update its basketball testing guidelines. Its most recent recommendations specify daily testing for schools in areas with a 7.5% or more testing positivity rate, which Pima County currently exceeds.

Scott said the league would make sure nonconference opponents “uphold the same testing standard that we have.”

That was also the expectation of NCAA senior vice president Dan Gavitt, who said he was aware some conferences may test more frequently than the NCAA requires.

“I’m pretty certain that when two (nonconference) teams decide to play against each other, they’re going to agree on what the testing protocol will be so that both teams feel confident for the safety of their players,” Gavitt said. “Then there will also be consideration given to local and state ordinances and regulations around traveling around competition.”

While Reynolds said the logistics have yet to be worked out, it is possible a team visiting Arizona might be asked to test frequently on its own in the days leading up to the game, then get tested in Tucson during the hours before tipoff.

5. What happens to conference play? How and when the Pac-12 decides to field its schedule will form the framework of its teams’ nonconference and MTE participation.

Heeke said the conference is close to finalizing its men’s and women’s basketball scheduling model. If the Pac-12 sticks to 20 games, that leaves only seven nonconference games — including an MTE.

The Pac-12 had planned to expand to 20 league games this season by adding back two games from each of its four “schedule skips” from the original 18-game plan. For Arizona, that meant a Dec. 2 home game with Colorado and a Dec. 19 trip to play Stanford, with the rest of the Wildcats’ games coming after New Year’s Day.

It’s unclear whether those games might still be held separately and/or moved, or whether the Pac-12’s typical two-game weekends would be altered. The Pac-12 has discussed playing all of a weekend’s games together at one arena, possibly with women’s teams sharing charter flights and venues.

Under that scenario, for example, instead of Arizona traveling to play at USC and at UCLA while the UA women host the Los Angeles schools at McKale, the men’s and women’s teams from all four schools might all play each other at one site in Los Angeles.

But when asked about that possibility, Reynolds answered in the same way he has about so many other things these days.

“Honestly not sure,” he said. “I think everything is on the table.”

Rim shots

  • Former Marana High School guard D’Marco Dunn says he’ll announce his college choice on Wednesday. Having become a four-star prospect after moving Fayetteville, North Carolina, last season, Dunn is considering Arizona, North Carolina, Texas, Vanderbilt, Clemson, Georgia and Louisville.
  • Former UA assistant coach Book Richardson is scheduled to help direct a Nov. 20-22 West Coast Elite camp in Phoenix.
  • NCAA.com’s Andy Katz made ASU (at No. 14) the highest-ranked Pac-12 team in his top 36. UCLA (19), Stanford (24) and Oregon (27) also made his list.

Tucson camera operator Darrin Pierce, who frequently works UA games at McKale Center, has been writing a blog about life in the NBA’s Orlando bubble (mylifeinthenbabubble.blogspot.com), having been embedded in the league’s most-restricted “green zone” since the NBA restart in July.

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