Pac-12's decision trickles down to SMU basketball schedule
With the Pac-12 postponing sports for the fall season, SMU basketball will now look at what to do with an open date in November.
The Pac-12 has decided to postpone fall sports, which means there will be no athletics through at least 2020.
How does that affect SMU? While it doesn't mean much for the football team, it does mean the men's basketball team either will have to find another opponent on Nov. 13 or simply use it as an off day.
The Mustangs were scheduled to travel to Tempe, Arizona, to play Arizona State in the first of a home-and-home series. Arizona State was expected to travel to Moody Coliseum next season.
"The health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports has been our number one priority since the start of this current crisis," Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said in a release. "Our student-athletes, fans, staff and all those who love college sports would like to have seen the season played this calendar year as originally planned, and we know how disappointing this is."
Arizona State was a 20-win team last season that had won nine of 10 Pac-12 games before losing three in a row in the final weeks of conference play. The Sun Devils beat Washington State in the final regular-season game on March 7 to snap the skid. The Pac-12 Tournament wasn't played because of COVID-19.
Arizona State is coached by Bobby Hurley. The team is led by senior guards Remy Martin and Alonzo Verge Jr., who combined to average nearly 34 points per game. Martin led the team last year and was second among all Pac-12 scorers with a 19.1 points-per-game average.