College coaches scrambling to fill hoops schedules

College coaches endured a tense time waiting for the NCAA to green light the 2020-21 basketball season.

They knew there was a window the NCAA was looking at to start, likely sometime in late November or early December. They just didn’t have a date. So they did the best they could to prepare for the big moment, yet still found themselves in a scramble once it actually happened.

Even now, six weeks before tipoff, teams are struggling to fill out schedules as the clock keeps ticking.

“We were trading a lot of phone calls, trying to come up with the best solutions,” said Anthony Ruta, director of basketball operations under Arkansas coach Eric Musselman. “You need time because you’re trying to juggle a bunch of different things. You’re trying to check a lot of boxes along the way without compromising yourself in other areas.”

College football ended up with a scattershot plan for starting its season, leaving it up to the various conferences. As a result, some conferences are already playing while others, like the Pac-12 and Big Ten, are still waiting for their seasons to kick off.