Arizona agrees to postpone Gonzaga game, will reportedly load schedule with home games, mid-majors

Jacob Snow-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats and Gonzaga Bulldogs officially postponed the return game of their home-and-home series to 2021-22, what the UA described as a mutual agreement.

Zags coach Mark Few said in September that that was the likely outcome. He’d prefer they play in front of their home fans, which wouldn’t have been possible on the original Dec. 5 date.

For Arizona, it’s a chance to reduce travel costs and risks amid the coronavirus pandemic, as Matt Norlander of CBS Sports reports they plan to play all their non-conference games at home.

Unfortunately this means Arizona won’t get a crack at what many believe is the No. 1 team in the country. The Zags brought in a strong recruiting class and return several newcomers from last year’s team, which beat Arizona 84-80 in Tucson, a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicates.

The Wildcats won’t be playing Illinois either, postponing their trip to Champaign to 2021-22. Like the Zags, the Fighting Illini were projected to be a top-10 team.

It’s unclear at the moment who the Wildcats will play in 2020-21, but Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star reports that they are hoping to host a multi-team event and Norlander said “I’d anticipate the majority, if not all, its opponents to be from mid-major leagues out West” though that won’t include LMU, who was on Arizona’s original schedule but won’t be part of the new one, per Pascoe.

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