Low roster turnover this spring should translate into more experience for Arizona next season and, well, the Wildcats will need it.
As part of a reworked 2021-22 schedule that folds in several postponements from this season, Arizona is now expected to take a trip to Gonzaga for its second game, probably on Nov. 12 or 13.
The Wildcats were originally contracted to face the Zags in Spokane, Washington, on Dec. 5 this season but the game was mutually postponed to next season.
The Zags wanted to host Arizona in front of fans after having to play the first game of the series before a sold-out McKale crowd in 2019-20 — and the then-rebuilding Wildcats didn’t want to travel out of conference (and possibly were also not all that excited about facing the loaded Zags anyway).
Similarly, Arizona will now travel to play at Illinois on Dec. 11 next season to make up for a game that had been scheduled for Dec. 12, 2020 at Champaign, Illinois. The Wildcats hosted both the Zags and Illini in 2019-20, the first games of two-game home-and-away arrangements.
Arizona’s 2021-22 schedule will also include three one-time opponents who were rolled over from this season: Wyoming (Dec. 8), Northern Colorado (Dec. 15) and Cal Baptist (Dec. 18).
Originally scheduled for Nov. 20 this season, Arizona’s home game with Wyoming was directly moved to 2021-22 after the NCAA pushed the college basketball season back from Nov. 10 to Nov. 25.
The Wildcats tried to move November home games against Northern Colorado and Cal Baptist into December, but both schools ultimately ran into COVID-19 issues that postponed those games anyway.
A fourth pre-Nov. 25 home game this season, against Loyola Marymount, was not carried forward. The contract for that game was signed during the early stages of the pandemic in May 2020 and included language that said neither party would be held liable if it could not be played and “reasonably rescheduled.”
Meanwhile, the Wildcats also added nonconference home games next season with North Dakota State (Nov. 16) and Sacramento State (Nov. 27).
The North Dakota State game is an add-on to the MGM Main Event, a two-game bracketed event in Las Vegas on Nov. 19 and 21 in which UA will join UNLV, Michigan and Wichita State. The bracket has not yet been announced.
Since the Pac-12 is also making the Wildcats play two early December dates to fill out their 20-game conference schedule, that leaves Arizona only one opening remaining before Christmas, a home game that is likely to be filled against a mid- or low-major opponent at McKale Center on Dec. 21.
The Pac-12 moved from 18 to 20 conference games this season but had to work in the two extra games in the early season around whatever games schools had already arranged; Arizona’s extra Pac-12 games were played on Dec. 19 against Stanford and Dec. 28 against Colorado in a game that was originally set for Dec. 2 but postponed because of the Buffaloes’ COVID-19 issues.
But with more time before next season, all extra Pac-12 games are expected to be wrapped around the conference’s Dec. 3 football championship game. All other 18 conference games will be played by each team after Christmas.
While Pac-12 schools could not sell tickets to fans this season, the Wildcats shaved some of their game costs via an addendum to the original game contracts. Records show UA paid NAU $80,000 instead of the originally agreed-upon $90,000, while Cal State Bakersfield and Montana both took $70,000 instead of $95,000.
Ryan Reynolds, UA’s director of basketball operations, said many high-major schools were offering far less for home games since ticket revenue had dried up.
“When we went from 95 or 90 (thousand) to 70, that was kind of us realizing that Tucson isn’t easy to get to, if you’re flying down from Montana,” Reynolds said. “NAU is kind of in their own category because of our partnership with them … but we lowered it for everyone who was on an original contract.”
On short notice, Arizona also paid Eastern Washington $50,000 for a game that was agreed upon on Dec. 2 and played three days later. Originally scheduled to play Gonzaga on Dec. 5, Arizona moved Northern Colorado into that date and then New Mexico State when Northern Colorado took a COVID pause — but NMSU’s own COVID pause made the Aggies also pull out.
However, the Wildcats had to foot Cal Baptist’s travel bills after COVID issues forced a cancellation just three hours before a scheduled tipoff on Dec. 16.
The Lancers had a positive COVID test within their traveling party after arriving in Tucson, but Arizona officially was forced to cancel the game because of overriding Pima County protocols and terms of their game contract say UA must pay travel costs if it is canceled at any time after Cal Baptist begins traveling to Tucson.
Arizona also wound up paying the full $130,000 it had contracted to pay the organizer of the “Southwest Classic” for two home games, even though one of them had to be rescheduled multiple times.
The Wildcats first hosted Grambling in their Nov. 27 season opener, which was also the first game of the Southwest Classic, but South Houston State pulled out of a second game set for Nov. 29. UA tried to fill that spot with UTEP but the Miners paused for COVID and their game wasn’t ultimately played until Dec. 12.
