Webcast to show UA basketball team
By Bruce Pascoe

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.31.2006

Arizona fans watching Saturday's football game from home might consider lining up their computers next to the television.

The University of British Columbia, in conjunction with a Canadian multimedia company, is offering a pay-per-view webcast of Saturday's UA-UBC basketball game. Because there will be no radio or television coverage of the Wildcats' five-game exhibition trip to British Columbia this weekend, it is the only time fans will be able to follow any of the games live without being there.

There are two catches: One, the webcast will cost $6.95 Canadian (about $6.30) and the game does not start until 7 p.m. — 15 minutes before the UA football team is scheduled to kick off against BYU.

Still, judging by the intense U.S. interest the Thunderbirds received with their 2004 exhibition game against Kansas, UBC is hoping that some UA fans will take a look. It is the school's first sports webcast, although spokesman Marc Weber said a free audiocast of a UBC playoff game last season attracted nearly 1,000 listeners.

"This is something we've been wanting to do for a while," Weber said. "It seemed like the right game to do, with the Arizona fans. Judging by the e-mails we've been getting, there will be some interest."

The 2004 Kansas game also attracted a near-sellout of about 3,000 to UBC's War Memorial Gym, and Weber said he expected about 2,500 for Saturday's UA game even though students do not start arriving on campus for fall classes until Sunday.

The link to purchase the game webcast, which can be done only on Saturday, is www.mediaontap.com/sports/basketball/ubc_arizona/. Weber said it is possible the game will be available afterward as an archive file, but that was still in doubt Wednesday. There will be two cameras and two Canadian broadcasters on the webcast.

Mutual benefits

The University of British Columbia will be playing Arizona twice this weekend — on Saturday night in Vancouver and on Monday morning at Douglas College in New Westminster, British Columbia. The Monday game was scheduled, UBC coach Kevin Hanson said, because Arizona did not want to face another all-star type of team.

UBC is expected to be the top competition the Wildcats will face this weekend, having gone 32-6 overall last season, with a 20-0 record in the Canada West Conference. The Thunderbirds are 4-6 against NCAA Division I competition over the past three seasons and have begun inquiring about becoming the first non-U.S. team to join the NCAA, though Weber said no definitive reply has been received.

Good health

The Wildcats are expecting to enter the weekend at full strength, except for guard Jawann McClellan, who will sit out after having knee surgery in April.

UA associate head coach Jim Rosborough said Wednesday that Fendi Onobun has missed time with a bruised knee but was expected back, and that Chase Budinger should miss no time despite an illness that bothered him Tuesday.

The Wildcats have had nine practices, with a final one scheduled today. The team will leave after class Friday, then start its five-game whirlwind Saturday at noon against Saskatchewan at War Memorial Gym.