In a strategic sense, the Arizona Wildcats’ nonconference schedule may be nearly perfect this season.
There were three solid mid-major warmups at home to start the season, with each team featuring markedly different styles and personnel to deal with.
Then there was a valuable (and fun) experience against high-major teams at the Maui Invitational. Now, big home games against Gonzaga and Michigan are being cushioned on each side by more mid-majors for the Wildcats, who remained No. 3 in Monday’s polls.
And all of this comes without a single December road game until after winter break begins — Arizona will play at UTEP and UNLV just before Christmas — and no trips of more than 400 miles, except Hawaii.
For the Wildcats’ opponent tonight, Utah Valley University, the opposite may be true with its schedule.
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The Wolverines of Orem, Utah, have had trouble scheduling anyone, anywhere. That’s partly what you get when you’re a fast-rising program that played as a junior college just over a decade ago and wasn’t an official Division I member until 2009, after Sean Miller was hired at Arizona.
“We don’t have any control over who will play us,” said longtime Utah Valley coach Dick Hunsaker. “Scheduling at every level of Division I is arguably the most difficult thing in the game.
“Everyone’s trying to get some advantages.”
Making matters worse for Hunsaker is that nobody wants to lose to the Wolverines, who upset their new counterparts in the Western Athletic Conference last season by seemingly coming out of nowhere to win the league.
So here’s what the Wolverines’ nonconference schedule looks like this season:
An opener with South Dakota at home. Then road games at Eastern Washington, Southern Utah, Idaho State, UC Davis, Sacramento State, Montana State and (huff, puff) Arizona. Oh, and then a little home-and-away action in-state — against Utah State at home and at Weber State — before three home games … and then Arkansas.
Naturally, that game with the Razorbacks is also a road game, with both Arkansas and the UA having signed one-time arrangements to get the Wolverines only to their place.
To recap: That’s seven straight road games, including tonight, then some heated in-state games, a few home games and, just before league play begins in January, a trip to Arkansas.
Happy New Year, Wolverines.
This is not exactly the kind of schedule you want to play when you lose three key players, including two all-WAC picks, off last season’s team.
“It certainly is nice to develop your team through your schedule,” Hunsaker said. “We don’t have that luxury. Playing seven straight road games is not the way to develop your team.”
But in the long view, Hunsaker isn’t complaining. A veteran of over three decades in coaching, he led Ball State to the 1990 Sweet 16, and was named the Mountain West’s Coach of the Year in 2000-01 at Utah after filling in for Rick Majerus, who took a leave of absence after one game with the Utes.
Yet it’s at constantly upgrading Utah Valley where he is happiest. In 11 years at Utah Valley, Hunsaker has overseen a program that transitioned from junior college into independent four-year program, then into Division I on a provisional basis in 2003, to the Great West Conference in 2009-10 and to the WAC last season.
In 2005-06, just three years after it was upgraded from a junior college, Utah Valley even beat ASU in Tempe, 75-71.
“It’s been the most gratifying situation I’ve ever had,” Hunsaker said. “Because you’re developing the program with your own stamp on it.”
Hunsaker said his recruiting in recent years was held up while he waited for “the WAC door to open,” and even now he is filling his roster with junior college and four-year transfers. While there is talent in his Utah backyard, there are five other Division I programs also hunting for it.
“You’ve gotta pick up who you can,” he said. “We want as many in-state kids as we can get. Orem is a good fit for Utah kids, but there’s a lot of competition for them.”
Hunsaker has six players from Utah, and his top scorer, forward Mitch Bruneel, is an Idaho local who transferred in from Utah State.
So Hunsaker is getting some local guys to buy in and a few other solid Division I players. They just have to move really fast once they arrive.
