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MBB schedule news: Arizona swaps Eastern Washington for Northern Colorado

Arizona is replacing one Big Sky team with another this week. Northern Colorado paused its program after a positive COVID-19 test last week leaving uncertainty about Saturday's game with the Wildcats at McKale Center. Wednesday the game was canceled and UA instead will play Eastern Washington (0-1) in a replacement game.

The matchup will still tip off at 12 p.m. MST and be televised by Pac-12 Network, but the contest also provides UA with an upgrade in opponent.

Eastern Washington nearly pulled off an upset against Washington State in its first game of the season before the Cougars mounted a comeback to win 71-68. The Eagles finished the 2019-20 season as the Big Sky regular season champions after going 23-8 and were picked as the preseason favorite to win the league this year.

The game against Wazzu is more impressive when you consider that EWU only had eight players available to play and used six of them. The Eagles led that game for more than 33 minutes.

EWU was limited because of COVID-19 issues with its program that, because of positive cases and contact tracing, left the team with too few players in the season opener against Oregon. That game was canceled, but the Eagles were able to have enough players return to play against the Cougars.

The team had an opening on its schedule after its opponent for Monday, Montana Tech, was forced to cancel its game with the Eagles. EWU is not scheduled to play until next Wednesday against UNLV, so there was a gap in the schedule that allowed the team to travel to Tucson to play the Wildcats.

The two programs have only met one time in the past with Arizona winning the matchup in 2004, 79-45. The game, which was played in Tucson, was part of the Fiesta Bowl Classic and UA was ranked No. 14 at the time.

One player who will have some familiarity with the Eagles is UA guard Terrell Brown Jr. who transferred to play for the Wildcats this summer after previously suiting up for Seattle University. Brown's team faced Eastern Washington early in the season last year and it was a big game for the UA newcomer.

He scored 31 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out four assists in the loss.

Arizona has had to cancel and reschedule several other games already this season. Sean Miller's team has played just one game so far as it has had to shuffle several teams on its schedule. UA was set to have its first Pac-12 game of the season Wednesday night, but positive COVID-19 cases in that program forced a postponement.

This week the Wildcats also added New Mexico State to the schedule for Dec. 12 to replace a game against UTEP that was canceled. The program also rescheduled its previously-canceled season opener against NAU for Dec. 7.

UA's first Pac-12 game against Stanford on Dec. 19 remains an uncertainty as well with the Cardinal planning to stay in North Carolina for the time being after officials in their region have decided to restrict athletics for high school, college and professional teams.

"Our student-athletes and staff have worked tirelessly in preparation to take the court this season and continue to show tremendous determination and resiliency in the wake of cancelled games," UA athletic director Dave Heeke said in his weekly Wildcat Wednesday newsletter.

Arizona is now scheduled to play three games over the next week with its matchup against Cal State Bakersfield on Dec. 9 still on track to be played.

Arizona's upcoming schedule (all games listed at McKale Center)

Dec. 5 – vs Eastern Washington (12 p.m. MST)

Dec. 7 – vs Northern Arizona (7 p.m. MST)

Dec. 9 – Cal State Bakersfield (5 p.m. MST)

Dec. 12 – vs New Mexico State (Time: TBD)

Dec. 16 – vs Cal Baptist (5 p.m. MST)

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