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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Arizona guard Jerryd Bayless is likely to miss the beginning of Pac-10 play after spraining his right knee Friday and missing Saturday's game.

Bayless said he suffered an MCL sprain, an injury that typically keeps basketball players out at least two weeks.

An MRI examination Saturday ruled out a more serious injury, team spokesman Richard Paige said, although an exact timetable for his return is unclear. Bayless will be further evaluated early this week upon returning to Tucson.

"It's certainly not an ACL injury," Paige said. "There's nothing torn, no ligament tears."

Bayless injured the knee early in Friday's practice, when he was backing up on defense. It was not the result of a collision, Paige said.

At first, UA interim head coach Kevin O'Neill indicated the injury was not significant. He said after Friday's practice that Bayless would be fine, and had a knee that was just a "little nicked up."

If Bayless misses two weeks, he would return either for the UA's Jan. 12 game at Houston or its Jan. 17 game at Stanford. The Wildcats are scheduled to host Oregon State and Oregon next week, then play at ASU on Jan. 9.

Arizona started Nic Wise at guard for Bayless and Kirk Walters at center for forward Bret Brielmaier, who was also unable to play Saturday.

Brielmaier suffered a separated shoulder in the first half of the UA's Dec. 22 game with San Diego State and attempted to return to practice last week. O'Neill said Friday he was very questionable for Saturday, and when the shoulder did not improve, he was scratched.

Behind-the-UA-bench fixture George Kalil nearly found himself moved to the top row of a lower-bowl corner section of the FedEx Forum, along with other UA supporters. He was spared when a security officer offered him a makeshift seat on the corner of the floor just before the game started.

Kalil said he can recall only a few occasions when he hasn't sat behind the bench during nearly 25 years of attending most all UA basketball games, home and road.

"They were pretty bad about it back in the early days at UNLV," Kalil said. "Then it's here and maybe one other spot."

During Pac-10 games, league rules specify that the visiting team gets 24 seats directly behind its bench, so as to provide a buffer, and the Wildcats typically extend the same courtesy for nonconference opponents. But Memphis spokesman Lamar Chance said Conference USA has no such rule and that the Tigers sell their seats behind the visiting bench to season-ticket holders.

So who says pro sports teams can dominate a college team in the same market? The University of Memphis and the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies both share the 18,400-seat FedEx Forum but it's the Tigers who draw more, averaging 17,332 entering Saturday's sold-out game.

The Grizzlies' attendance has slipped in the past two seasons, to an average of 14,654 last season. They announced a crowd of just 11,189 on Wednesday against New Orleans.

Of course, one reason for the disparity: The Tigers have become a perennial top-10 team and the Grizzlies, who moved from Vancouver only in 2001, are one of the NBA's worst teams.

The Tigers also have a comfy practice situation. While the Grizzlies have their own practice court at the Forum, the Tigers have their own state-of-the-art practice facility on campus, and coach John Calipari says the Grizzlies will let them on the Forum floor whenever they request it.

"It's been a positive," Calipari says. "For just about every practice, we've had pro scouts in there because they're coming for the Grizzlies. There's a buzz and a presence."

ESPN's Jimmy Dykes made a remark during last week's Memphis-Georgetown game that rubbed the Tigers the wrong way.

"A lot of times, Memphis, they play for agents and posses and AAU coaches," Dykes said. "Calipari has done a great job today of his kids playing for Memphis."

While Calipari told the Memphis Commercial-Appeal he had no problem with the remark, Tigers guard Antonio Anderson said the team's image has been portrayed inaccurately.

"We just go out and play," Anderson told the paper. "When everybody on the team has a lot of tattoos and braids, wild hair designs and stuff, some people are going to think differently about you. But we don't care. We're normal kids, good kids just like everybody else."

● The Cats wore red uniforms for the first time this season. They wore blue at Kansas, against Illinois in Chicago and at UNLV.

● With a fast-break layup late in the first half, Memphis junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts reached the 1,000-point career mark. He was a major recruiting target of the UA out of Detroit.