Arizona's season has been anything but smooth from a scheduling perspective. COVID-19 issues with several of the Wildcats' opponents have forced games to be moved to different dates and in some cases canceled altogether. That is what will happen with UA's matchup with California Baptist that was scheduled to take place earlier this week at McKale Center.
CBU learned of a positive COVID-19 test within its program ahead of its matchup with the Wildcats and the game was called off just a couple hours before tip off Wednesday night. To make up for that lost game, UA has decided to schedule a matchup against the University of San Diego that will be played Dec. 21 when Arizona returns home to Tucson from its first road trip of the season.
The 3 p.m. matchup against USD will come as part of a back-to-back stretch for UA as the Wildcats have long been scheduled to face Montana at McKale Center on Dec. 22 at 5 p.m. That game remains in place as the Wildcats look to continue to get their seven nonconference games in before the start of the bulk of Pac-12 play later in the month.
Arizona is set to hit the road for the first time this season when it travels to Santa Cruz to face Stanford in the first game of conference play. The matchup was forced to move from Maples Pavilion on Stanford's campus because of coronavirus restrictions that have not allowed practice or competition to take place in Santa Clara County.
The game will be played at the home of the Golden State Warriors G-League affiliate.
UA's original Pac-12 opener was supposed to have happened in early December, but positive COVID-19 cases within Colorado's program forced that game to be postponed. It will now be played at McKale Center on Dec. 28 before the Wildcats hit the road to face Washington and Washington State during New Year's weekend.
The Wildcats have started the season 5-0 despite all the disruptions with their last victory coming Saturday against UTEP in a 69-61 victory over the Miners. Arizona has been able to avoid any hint of a COVID-19 outbreak on its side this season though assistant coach Jason Terry was held out of one game because of an inconclusive test.
Outside of that UA has remained healthy, but head coach Sean Miller attributes that to a little bit of luck during the uncertain times with with the understanding that it could change at any moment.
"We're all trying the best we can, but we're going to be impacted," the UA head coach said this week. "When that time comes that's the next challenge for us to handle that as well as we can making sure that our players are in a safe environment and then bouncing back and returning to form.
"Nobody really knows what that future holds, so I'm not eager to answer the question of, 'hey, we're doing great things.' Clearly the results of our team should at least tell you that we're trying hard to do things the right way."
UA's matchup with Stanford is set to tip off at 5 p.m on Saturday at Kaiser Permanente Arena.
Arizona's upcoming schedule (home games in bold)
Dec. 19 – at Stanford (in Santa Cruz, CA) (5:00pm MST - Pac-12 Network)
Dec. 21 – San Diego (3:00pm MST - Pac-12 Network)
Dec. 22 – Montana (5:00pm MST - Pac-12 Network)
Dec. 28 – Colorado (7:30pm MST - Pac-12 Network)
Dec. 31 – at Washington (6:00pm MST - Pac-12 Network)
Jan. 2 – at Washington State (8:30pm MST - Pac-12 Network)
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