While offering Loyola Marymount and Wyoming the last two spots on Arizona’s 2020-21 home schedule, Arizona’s Ryan Reynolds posted a message to a college basketball scheduling board seeking interest from other programs in case the deals fall apart.
Normally, such a post might generate two or three replies from teams interested in what are known as “guarantee” games, those typically paying teams about $90,000 in exchange for a one-time appearance at McKale Center.
This time, Reynolds said he received nearly 15 inquiries.
“I think everyone needs money,” said Reynolds, UA’s director of basketball operations.
“The market is saturated with teams who want to play road guarantee games. … It’s crazy.”
Reynolds probably won’t need the extra applicants, since a Nov. 16 game with LMU has been confirmed and Nov. 20 game with Wyoming has been agreed to, though not yet contracted, thus all but finishing Arizona’s 2020-21 schedule.
COVID-19 permitting, the Wildcats will play 20 Pac-12 games next season for the first time, plus an appearance in the NIT Season Tip-Off at New York, marquee road games at Gonzaga and Illinois — and seven home non-conference games.
At home, Arizona is now scheduled to face NAU, Northern Colorado, LMU, Wyoming, CSU Bakersfield, Cal Baptist and Montana in nonconference play while also hosting Colorado on Dec. 2 as part of the Pac-12’s expanded 20-game schedule before the league starts its conventional 18-game schedule after Christmas.
But while opponents have been lining up for the chance to play Arizona, the process is taking one step longer: A new paragraph has been entered into the game contracts for LMU and Wyoming that essentially says if any team involved is unable to travel to or play the game because of COVID-19 restrictions, neither side involved will be held liable.
Already, UA game contracts typically have a “force majeure” clause that also holds neither side liable if a game is delayed or for any other breach of contract because of war, natural disasters, strikes or other events beyond the reasonable control of the teams involved.
Recruiting beat goes on
Despite a ban on in-person recruiting now extended until at least June 30 — and the cancellation of NCAA academy showcases — Arizona and its peers continue to recruit virtually this spring.
In the past week, the Wildcats held virtual visits with five-star 2021 forward Paolo Banchero and four-star forward Ben Gregg of Oregon.
“Recruiting, as you can predict, is still at the forefront of college basketball,” Wildcats coach Sean Miller said in a UA-produced video released last weekend.
“You do it over Zoom, do it by the telephone. You’re not getting the in-person feel as much but it’s something that I think all of us are paranoid about — that if you’re not working at, and all of a sudden the world opens back up, we’re all going to be kind of like, ‘OK, what have we done while we’ve been isolated here?’
“We’re going to go really, really quickly (once restrictions are lifted) so we’re trying to stay on top of that.”
Even though the Wildcats were not on Banchero’s list of nine finalists last September, Arizona offered him a scholarship in March and he listed UA among a new top six last month that also includes Kentucky, Washington, Duke, Gonzaga and Tennessee.
Gregg, a 6-foot-9 forward who was named the Gatorade Oregon Player of the Year last season after averaging 12.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game for Clackamas High School, also has scholarship offers from Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State, Texas, Texas Tech, USC, Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Arizona also was listed in the top 10 for Kendall Brown, a five-star 2021 small forward who is also considering Baylor, Minnesota, Kansas, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, Marquette, Arkansas and Virginia as the other finalists.
Time to strategize
While speaking to former UA players Steve Kerr and Matt Muehlebach on the UA’s latest basketball video, Miller said he’s spent a lot of his extra time available this spring to watch FIBA basketball games in part because of their ball movement.
“I think sometimes their ball movement and their players are more like college than some NBA teams,” Miller said, then speaking to Kerr when he said: “Some of the great international coaches I’m mesmerized by in the way (their teams) move, and the way their players cut or they play like your Golden State Warriors.
“I hate sometimes looking at our team just because I want our team to play more like that… Why do they move the ball like that? They’ve been together for a long time. So we’re trying to steal things from you guys and adjust, to add and be better moving forward.”
Virtual grads
All of UA’s departing seniors and graduate students finished up degrees before last week’s student-athlete convocation except guard Max Hazzard, who is just three classes shy of a master’s degree in entrepreneurship.
Of the undergraduate degree holders, guard Dylan Smith and Kory Jones earned theirs in general studies while forward Jake DesJardins earned his in business administration.
Of the graduates, center Chase Jeter earned his in educational leadership, Stone Gettings earned his in accounting and Hazzard has enrolled for the final three courses that are expected to get him his master’s at some point this summer.
Sweeping Arizona border measure could be approved this week
