Arizona men’s basketball reschedules COVID-postponed game vs. Washington

The Arizona Wildcats were supposed to be heading to Oregon State this weekend with a Pac-12 game already under their belts. Instead, they’ll be coming back from a road trip next month to make up that postponed matchup, and in doing so will cramp their schedule.

The UA will host Washington on Jan. 25, the rescheduled date for the Thursday game that was called off due to COVID-19 issues within the UW program.

The Wildcats will face the Huskies at McKale Center on a Tuesday after coming back from a trip to the Bay Area schools, visiting Cal on Jan. 23 after playing at Stanford on Jan. 20. Arizona hosts ASU on Jan. 29, making it four games in a 10-day span.

Washington had a second game canceled because of its COVID problem on Friday, as the Huskies are no longer set to host UCLA on Sunday. That game will not be made up and will go down as a forfeit for UW and a win for UCLA in the Pac-12 standings.

According to Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star, the UA likely opted to reschedule the game rather than get a win via forfeit—which the NCAA will not consider when picking and seeding teams in the NCAA Tournament—for financial reasons.

No. 11 Arizona (6-0) play at Oregon State (1-7, 0-1 Pac-12) at 2 p.m. MT Sunday before returning home to host Wyoming on Wednesday.