The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team was looking for an opponent to play after the cancellation of a home game, and as a result will play at Arizona of the Pac-12 Conference on Saturday (Dec. 5). The game will be broadcast by the Pac-12 Networks at 11 a.m. Pacific time from the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz.

Eastern opened its season with a 71-68 loss at Washington State on Nov. 28, and that same day had its home opener versus Montana Tech canceled the next day because of Covid-19 concerns within the Orediggers program. Northern Colorado, meanwhile, announced on Nov. 25 it was pausing activities in its program, and that led to EWU replacing the Bears on Arizona's schedule for Dec. 5.
 
The Eagles have played the Wildcats once before, a 79-45 loss on Dec. 28, 2004, in the Fiesta Bowl Classic in Tucson, Ariz. Arizona was ranked No. 14 nationally at the time, and EWU went on to beat Butler 67-62 two days later to finish third in the tourney.
 
A year ago, Arizona was 21-11 overall and finished 10-8 in the Pac-12 Conference. The Wildcats beat Washington 77-70 in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament on March 11, but the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of their game the next day versus USC, as well as the rest of the postseason.
 
The Wildcats have already had three games canceled or postponed, and the lone game they've played was a 74-55 victory over Grambling State on Nov. 27.  Arizona led 39-23 at halftime and held the Tigers to 3-of-22 (14 percent) shooting from the 3-point stripe for the game. Jordan Brown and James Akinjo each scored 19 points to lead the Wildcats, with the 6-foot-11 Brown also finishing with 15 rebounds and three blocked shots.

The Wildcats are led by veteran head coach Sean Miller, who is in his 12th season as head coach at Arizona and has won 286 games. He has won 406 in his head coaching career, including five previous seasons at Xavier. His teams have advanced to the NCAA Tournament 11 times and the NIT once.
 
In the loss to Washington State, Eastern led for 33:07 of the game before a late 13-5 Cougar run turned the tide. Eastern had only eight players available for the game and just six played. The Groves brothers out of Spokane's Shadle Park High School – Tanner and Jacob – combined for 33 points and 17 rebounds in the loss.
 
After the Arizona game, EWU is scheduled to resume action on Dec. 9 versus UNLV of the Mountain West Conference. The Runnin' Rebels are 0-3, including a season-opening 91-78 loss to Montana State on Nov. 25. They also fell to North Carolina (78-51) and Alabama (86-74) in a pair of games played in Asheville, N.C., on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, respectively. UNLV is scheduled to play Davidson (Dec. 2 in Asheville) and Kansas State (Dec. 5 in Manhattan, Kan.) prior to facing the Eagles.