Cal Basketball: Finding a Fresh Path to a Pac-12 Conference Hoops Season

The league's cancellation of games through Dec. 31 will require adjustments for basketball

It’s not just football and fall sports that will be impacted by the Pac-12’s announcement this week that bars competition through the end of the calendar year.

Basketball also will be affected by the edict designed to safeguard athletes from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cal loses its Nov. 23-24 trip to Kansas City to participate in the Hall of Fame Classic, also featuring TCU, Northwestern and South Carolina in games at the Sprint Center.

Coach Mark Fox’s squad had non-conference games set at Boston College, Pepperdine and UC San Diego, the latter a season-opener for the Tritons, who are transitioning to Division I and the Big West Conference after going 30-1 as a DII program last season. All of them would appear to be shelved.

Also bulldozed by the news are two Pac-12 basketball games scheduled for December as the conference planned to expand to a 20-game league schedule.

So, what will the 2021 Pac-12 basketball schedule look like?

And how should it be constructed?

All discussion on these matters must be prefaced by the fact that we don’t yet know how other conferences may adjust their winter sports schedules because of the coronavirus.

The Big Ten also announced cancellation of all fall events, but stopped short of banning all games through the end of 2020, allowing the possibility of non-conference basketball.

Likewise, the Mountain West and Mid-American conferences — which also shut down fall sports — continue to formulate plans for basketball and other winter activities.

Depending on how effectively the virus can eventually become contained, or is quick turn-around testing becomes available to college programs, things can go in a couple directions. Other leagues may proceed with non-conference basketball games in November and December, or they may pull back and wait until January.

But presuming we do have a college basketball season, a few things seem clear:

— The date set for the NCAA tournament and Final Four will serve as the end point for scheduling, with schools and conferences working back from there. Currently, the Final Four is set for April 3 & 5 at Indianapolis, but if other schools postpone the start of their seasons the NCAA might have to push back the tournament.

The Pac-12 does not project a clear Final Four contender in 2021, but Joe Lunardi, bracketologist for ESPN, currently has these five schools from the conference in his mock bracket (with seeding in parenthesis): Oregon (5), Arizona State (7), UCLA (7), Stanford (9) and Arizona (9).

— If the NCAA reschedules the tournament even two weeks later, Pac-12 schools still could make it work. Three adjustments to the existing plan might be necessary:

Concede that the non-conference portion of the season will be drastically reduced. Instead, have each team find two or three non-conference opponents willing to play games over the first two weeks of January. Schools that are losing November and December matchups against Pac-12 opponents may be able to squeeze those games into their January schedule.

Reduce the length of the conference schedule. Not only will the expanded 20-game league slate have to be postponed a year but the Pac-12 may need to shorten the league schedule to 14 or 16 games to complete everything in time for the NCAA tournament.

Eliminate the Pac-12 tournament for one year. The event rarely helps get the Pac-12 an extra NCAA bid anyway, and it would free up another week to play conference games.

Lots of moving parts already and changes to the virus landscape will no doubt create new challenges. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that basketball finds a path.

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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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