Cal Basketball: Latest COVID-Related Headache is Re-Scheduling Non-League Games

As practice begins, Bears still don't have a non-conference calendar set

Mark Fox still doesn’t have a schedule of games figured out for his Cal basketball team.

But the complicated scenario created by the COVID-19 pandemic at least has him feeling good about a potential lunch date.

“Justin Wilcox will buy me lunch if he plays a game before I do because he told me the entire pandemic he thought we would play before he did,” Fox told reporters. “So you guys give me a great and expensive spot for him to take me.”

Fox would happily trade a a meal out with Cal’s football coach for some clarity on the Bears’ non-conference schedule. While Cal football is set to open its season Nov. 7 against Washington, Fox has more questions than answers regarded the basketball calendar.

The NCAA announced that games can begin Nov. 25, but assembling a non-conference schedule after the Pac-12 initially postponed all sports for the remainder of 2020 has been challenging.

“I wish I could tell you how close we are,” Fox said, when asked when the Bears’ schedule might be complete. “There are days when I feel like we’re close and then there’s mornings when I wake up and wonder, `Are we ever going to put the pieces back together?’ “

Whatever contracted games or hand-shake agreements Fox had worked out for pre-conference play pretty much evaporated after the Pac-12 scrubbed the 2020 calendar.

“We didn’t know if we would play in November and December. Our opponents didn’t know if we were going to play in November and December,” Fox said.

So those opponents were forced to look elsewhere, making many of them unavailable when the Pac-12 reversed its course last month after securing the ability to provide daily, rapid-response testing for athletes.

Among other things, Cal lost its place in Hall of Fame Classic at Kansas City, a two-game event also involving Northwestern, TCU and South Carolina.

“They weren’t willing to wait for the decision from the Pac-12,” Fox said.

Cal was replaced in the field by Tulsa.

The problem is the Hall of Fame Classic is designated as a multi-team event (MTE), which provides some scheduling benefits. As things currently stand, the NCAA is allowing teams to create a 27-game regular-season schedule, as long as they are involved in an MTE.

A report earlier this week said Cal and Oregon State have joined forces to create their own four-school MTE involving Dixie State University of Utah and an undetermined fourth program. No dates have been announced.

Even so, the schedule remains in flux.

Pac-12 teams got some scheduling clarity earlier this week when the conference confirmed it will go forward with existing plans to expand the league schedule from 18 to 20 games. The women will play 22 Pac-12 games.

The offshoot is that conference play will begin in December, necessary to squeeze in all games before the postseason.

Presuming that the Bears firm up the MTE, they will be able to play seven non-conference games along with their 20-game Pac-12 schedule.

Fox said four or five of those remain fluid, partly because the schools involved must meet the Pac-12’s benchmarks for testing and health protocols before Cal is able to host or visit them.

“Putting that all together and checking all the boxes has been a real challenge. So we’re not there yet — we’re just not,” Fox said. "Hopefully in the next week or 10 days we can make a little more progress, but we still have a ways to go.”

The Pac-12 has yet to unveil its schedule, and Fox said one of the variables is building in space for makeups of games that are potentially postponed because of positive tests.

He also said he believes the Pac-12 tournament — interrupted mid-stream by the pandemic last season — will be played at Las Vegas.

Fox talks in more detail about that situation in the video below:

.

So when exactly should we expect some detail on the schedule?

“Hopefully before November we can have a non-conference schedule in place,” Fox said. “But I’ll tell you there’s a lot of moving parts to that.”

.

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

Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Cal Sports Report on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page