The San Diego State men’s basketball team will return to its former home Nov. 7 for the inaugural National University Bill Walton Classic at Pechanga Arena.
Against whom?
Good question.
The annual event was announced Wednesday morning at Helix High School, Walton’s alma mater, without one important detail.
“A little concerned about an opponent to be named later,” said coach Brian Dutcher, who coached Walton’s son, Chris, at SDSU. “But I know we’re going to play a good team in the city of San Diego and we’re honoring Bill Walton. It’s a great event.”
The obvious opponent would be UCLA, where Walton was the three-time national player of the year under coach John Wooden in the early 1970s, but the Bruins are already in the four-team Rady Children’s Invitational at USD over Thanksgiving.
Multiple sources told the Union-Tribune that TCU had originally expressed interest in the Nov. 7 game — the first Saturday of the season — before withdrawing.
Dutcher has talked repeatedly about power conference programs not wanting to face the Aztecs at Viejas Arena, so the challenge becomes finding someone willing to play them nine miles west on Interstate 8.
“At the end of the day, people are looking for good games,” Dutcher said. “It’s like us. We played a neutral game (last December) in Phoenix against Arizona. It didn’t feel very neutral, but we did it. There will be a coach out there, hopefully from a power conference, who wants to come here and play a game in San Diego against San Diego State, a good opponent.
“Not everybody’s ducking us. Somebody will play us in the event. I know they will.”
SDSU sporadically played home games at what was then called the San Diego Sports Arena in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s before Viejas Arena opened.
Both teams will receive what is believed to be a six-figure payday to add to their revenue-sharing kitty for players. The game will also benefit the Bill Walton Foundation and Sports San Diego, which is organizing the event.
“It’s going to be an opponent that everyone is going to be happy with,” said Sports San Diego CEO Mark Neville, who is tasked with finding it. “I’m talking with several schools right now, power (conferences) for the most part. We’ll have a good opponent.”
It presumably will add to an already difficult schedule. The Aztecs are in the 32-team Players Era Festival, the pre-eminent nonconference event over Thanksgiving week in Las Vegas that features many of the nation’s top programs, plus are finalizing a neutral-court game against BYU in the Palm Springs area.
The doubleheader will open with a game between the UCSD and USD women’s teams. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, ranging from $60 to $160. More information is available at billwaltonclassic.com.
The SDSU men are the anchor draw this year and for the foreseeable future.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if it worked out like that,” Neville said. “This is just the first year with a doubleheader. There may be many more games than that. This is brand new. We’re going to learn a lot this year.”