"Tell them … tell the team to bear down"

Look Ahead and Back: Bruins vs. Wildcats

Compiled by Javier Morales

Arizona 2009-10 schedule
(Full schedule and statistics available at ArizonaWildcats.com)

LAST TEN GAMES (5-5) Jan. 31: W, Arizona 76, California 72 Feb. 4: L, Washington 81, Arizona 75 Feb. 6: L, Washington State 78, Arizona 60 Feb. 11: W, Arizona 70, Oregon 57 Feb. 13: L, Oregon State 63, Arizona 55 Feb. 21: L, Arizona State 73, Arizona 69 Feb. 25: L, California 95, Arizona 71 Feb. 27: W, Arizona 71, Stanford 69 March 4: W, Arizona 78, UCLA 73 March 6: W, Arizona 86, USC 84 (20T) NEXT GAMES (Tucson times): PAC-10 TOURNAMENT March 11: No. 5 UCLA vs. No. 4 Arizona, 1 p.m., Staples Center, Los Angeles March 12: TBA (Potentially vs. No. 1 Cal or tonight’s winner between No. 8 Oregon and No. 9 Washington State) RPI BRACKETOLOGY >>Joe Lunardi Bracket: Arizona — UNLISTED (as of March 9). Cal (No. 8 seed) and ASU (No. 12 seed) are the only Pac-10 teams listed. Washington is listed under the “First Four Out” class.

ARIZONA’S RPI AS OF MARCH 10: No. 87. SOS: 34. RECORD VS. RPI TOP 50: 2-7 — Beat No. 20 Cal (home) 76-72 and No. 49 Washington (home) 87-70. Lost to No. 17 Wisconsin (neutral) 65-61, No. 20 Cal (road) 95-71, No. 22 Vanderbilt (neutral) 84-72, No. 23 BYU (home) 99-69, No. 36 San Diego State (road) 63-46, No. 48 UNLV (home) 74-72 (2OT), and No. 49 Washington (road) 81-75. OPPONENTS ARIZONA BEAT (WITH CURRENT RPI): >>No. 20 Cal (21-9) >>No. 49 Washington (21-9) >>No. 54 Arizona State (22-9) >>No. 79 Louisiana Tech (22-9) >>No. 103 Colorado (15-15) >>No. 106 N.C. State (17-14) >>No. 112 Southern Cal (16-14) >>No. 147 Oregon (15-15) >>No. 148 UCLA (13-17) >>No. 178 Stanford (13-17) >>No. 200 NAU (14-14) >>No. 209 Lipscomb (17-13) >>No. 312 Rice (8-22) UCLA (13-17) RPI: 148. SOS: 44. Record vs. RPI Top 50: 2-4. Beat No. 20 Cal (road) 76-75 and No. 49 Washington (home) 62-61. Lost to No. 1 Kansas (home) 73-61, No. 14 Butler (neutral) 69-67, No. 20 Cal (home) 72-58, and Washington (road) 92-68.

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UCLA-ARIZONA MATCHUPS IN THE PAC-10 TOURNEY

March 11, 1990: Arizona 94, UCLA 78 – The Wildcats won their third consecutive Pac-10 tournament title behind Co-MVPs Jud Buechler (22 points and seven rebounds) and Matt Muehlebach (14 points and four steals). Buechler also helped the Wildcats in their box-and-one defensive scheme against prolific scorer Don MacLean in the game played at ASU’s Activity Center. Buechler limited MacLean to only four touches in the first half. The UCLA forward attempted only one shot before halftime as Arizona built an 18-point lead. “After we opened the game with five airballs, then they just beat us good in every phase of the game,” UCLA coach Jim Harrick was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times. MacLean scored 44 points and had 26 rebounds when the teams split during the regular season. He was held to only 12 points while being mostly defended by Buechler. “We had to find a replacement for Sean (Elliott),” UA coach Lute Olson said of his former national player of the year standout. “Jud’s the only guy that could do it.”

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UA sophomore has his place among UA elite

RELATED LINKS:

• Arizona freshman forward Kevin Parrom, who has missed the past four games because of a foot injury, likely will be in uniform when the Wildcats play UCLA on Thursday in the opening game of the Pac-10 tournament. Read more from Anthony Gimino at TucsonCitizen.com.
• UCLA center Reeves Nelson, out the last couple of weeks because of an eye injury, will return to the Bruins’ lineup against Arizona. That will test the UA frontline because Nelson is active around the glass and wing player Tyler Honeycutt loosens things up with his inside-outside capability.

By Javier Morales

The list reads like a Who’s Who of top Wildcat scorers in the Lute Olson years:

Salim Stoudamire

Gilbert Arenas

Michael Dickerson

Chris Mills

Brian Williams

Sean Elliott

They have all donned NBA uniforms. They were each selected All-Americans. They combine for 10 selections to the All-Pac-10 team, each making it at least once.

They comprise an elite club since Olson became Arizona’s coach in 1983-84.

How in the world is UA sophomore Kyle Fogg part of this elite club? Find out at TucsonCitizen.com.

Steve Rivera of TucsonCitizen.com reports that Fogg earned the Golden “A” Award for the best GPA on this year’s team, announced at the annual awards banquet at Westin La Paloma tonight.

Here is an offering of our Litany O’ Links:

Remember the debate last summer about whether Arizona would benefit from a one-and-done player like Lance Stephenson? Well, he announced he is returning for his sophomore year at Cincinnati.

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Interesting to note: Stephenson and South Florida’s Jarrid Famous are projected to join Arizona in the NIT, according to the Bracket Project. Stephenson was rumored to be recruited by Arizona last summer while Famous spurned the Cats for South Florida the same night he returned to his New York home from a recruiting trip to Tucson.

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Final add Stephenson: He’s expected to be named the Big East’s Rookie of the Year today

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It was peculiar that P.J. Carlesimo announced a Pac-10 game for Fox Sports last week when USC played at ASU. Perhaps he was scouting a couple of his opponents next year when he is the head coach at Oregon?

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Richard Obert of the Arizona Republic breaks down the Fab Four high school recruits in Arizona this year, including UA-bound Phoenix North shooting guard Daniel Bejarano, who has this characteristic according to Obert: “Tell him he’s not good enough, and he’ll figure ways to prove you wrong.”

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UA’s other Class of 2010 recruit, guard Jordin Mayes of Los Angeles Westchester helped his team to the City Section Division I boys’ basketball championship Saturday at the Galen Center in Los Angeles

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The end was inevitable for former UA assistant coach Phil Johnson as part of Kevin O’Neill’s staff at USC because O’Neill wants his own coaches on his staff. O’Neill has reportedly let go of Johnson and Gib Arnold. Johnson was the link to some of USC’s top talent from Louisiana, such as Dwight Lewis, Marcus Simmons and Leonard Washington.

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Williams Pac-10 Frosh of the Year; Wise selected All-Pac-10

By Anthony Gimino

The Sporting News has announced its five-player All-Freshman team, and four of the names make perfect sense.

There’s Kentucky guard John Wall, the No. 1 recruit in the nation last year, according to Rivals.com. There is Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins, the No. 2 recruit. No. 3 was forward Derrick Favors (Georgia Tech). No. 8 was guard Xavier Henry (Kansas).

Big-time, can’t-miss recruits.

2009-10 All-Pac-10 Selections

And the other very-deserving member of the Sporting News’ All-Freshman team is Arizona post player Derrick Williams, who wasn’t even on Rivals.com list of top 150 recruits. In fact, he wasn’t even on a five-player All-Williams team of prospects.

The Pac-10 released its all-conference teams Monday morning, with Williams earning Freshman of the Year honors, as well as one of 10 slots on the all-conference first team.

Arizona senior point guard Nic Wise was not on the original list released by the Pac-10, but he was indeed selected first-team all-league. (Insert personal gripe here: The league needs to agree to make some tough calls and have just a five-man first team, and then a second team and third team.)

Williams is the example of “you never know” in recruiting. He was the least heralded of Arizona’s five freshmen.

“I really didn’t know what to expect from Derrick,” UA coach Sean Miller said last week.

“It became apparent that he was very talented. He is a really soft-spoken kid. He’s a fantastic kid who wants to do well and do the things you ask him. His talent far exceeded our expectations.”

Williams averaged 15.7 points and 7.0 rebounds in the regular season, shooting 58.8 percent from the field. The honor from the Sporting News is just the beginning.

Facebook group calls for his jersey to be retired

By Javier Morales

It might be a pipe dream, but a Facebook group has started this page: 100,000 Wildcats for retiring Nic Wise’s jersey.

The UA only honors players this way if they are awarded national player of the year or consensus All-American status. Wise does not stand a chance in that regard. He might not even make the all-Pac-10 team. But for all that Wise has contributed to the UA program, through what he calls “a lot of turmoil,” he deserves to be thought of this way.

What a symbolic gesture that would be to honor Wise, who never quit on the program although he had every right to do so, playing for four coaching staffs in four years. He committed to Arizona before he could have a drivers license (at age 15). The coaches who recruited him — Lute Olson and Josh Pastner — have not been on the bench for a couple of years.

This Facebook group can dream, can’t it?

It’s a crime that Wise is not at least one of the finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS award. According to the NCAA, to be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – classroom, character, community and competition.

Wise is set to earn his bachelor’s degree in May, according to coach Sean Miller. Character? The guy never gave up. Community? He is approachable and receptive to Tucson residents. A Houston native, he calls Tucson his second home. Competition? Three game-winning baskets in one season?

By the way, these are the finalists: Matt Bouldin, Gonzaga; Da’Sean Butler, West Virginia; Marquis Hall, Lehigh; Luke Harangody, Notre Dame; Damion James, Texas; Adam Koch, Northern Iowa; Chris Kramer, Purdue; Raymar Morgan, Michigan State; Jon Scheyer, Duke; and Josh Young, Drake.

When Dick Enberg waxes poetic about one of these guys winning the award during the Final Four, turn your television set off. I will. These players are deserving, but Wise should at least be part of this list.

Losses to WSU ends 41-0 run against conference futility

By Javier Morales

Five things you may not have known about Arizona and UCLA in this Pac-10 basketball season:

1. When was the last time Arizona was swept by the last-place team in the conference? Washington State, which lost nine of its last 11 games, did the trick this season. The answer: Never. On five different occasions, the Wildcats lost at least once to the last-place team, the most recent being in 1991, when Washington beat the UA 70-56 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

   That means the Wildcats went 18 straight years doing what they should: Sweep the last-place team, a 41-0 run (on two occasions, two teams tied for last and the Wildcats beat Washington in the second meeting in 1991 at McKale Center). Their two losses to Washington State this season is another sign of a transition year under Sean Miller.

   I can hear the question now: What about the Ben Lindsey season of 1982-83? The Wildcats were the last-place team with a 1-17 record, the only time in UA’s Pac-10 history that they finished at the bottom. Fred Snowden’s teams didn’t lose twice to the No. 10 team in the conference? Yes, that’s true. Snowden’s Cats were beaten by the last-place Cougars 80-71 in 1980-81, but the UA beat Wazzu in McKale Center that season. Otherwise, Snowden was 7-1 against futility in his four seasons of coaching in the Pac-10.

   For those of you who think this blog is too negative: On the flipside, the Cats went 3-3 against the three teams ahead of them in the standings — Cal, ASU and Washington.

   Please read the four other items at TucsonCitizen.com

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Cats face UCLA at Staples Center at 1 p.m. Tucson time

RELATED LINKS: >>Fogg Warning: Cats vs. Bruins, Part 3 in Pac-10 Tournament (TucsonCitizen.com) >>UCLA finishes its regular season with a 56-46 loss to ASU >>Game thread of today’s UCLA-ASU game on Bruins’ site BruinsNation.com >>Reeves Nelson leery of returning to the lineup because of his retina injury (Pasadena Star News) >>The L.A. Times reports that J’mison Morgan missed the Arizona game because he missed a team meeting

PACIFIC-10 CONFERENCE GRAPHIC:

Clutch free throws help Cats beat USC

RELATED LINKS AT TUCSONCITIZEN.com:

• Javier Morales: Dissecting what Arizona’s win over USC really means

By Anthony Gimino

Kyle Fogg’s teammates wouldn’t even look at him. He was facing three free throws, down three points, with 0.2 seconds left in regulation.

In the last home of the regular season.

Against USC and former UA interim head coach Kevin O’Neill.

With a victory meaning a winning regular season and, at least, an excellent shot at the NIT if the Wildcats don’t run the table at the Pac-10 tournament.

No pressure, right?

“I was searching for help and they had their heads down,” Fogg said of his teammates.

Point guard Nic Wise, the team’s only senior, interrupted Fogg’s comments at the postgame news conference.

“We were praying for him,” Wise said.

Three free throws for the tie. Arizona coach Sean Miller, who remains one of the greatest free throw shooters in Big East history and, as legend has it, shot at least 100 free throws a day in high school for nearly three years, had some words of advice for his sophomore guard.

“I just honed in on him being a confident shooter,” Miller said.

“I tell you, that is the most pressure-packed situation you can have. When you basically have no time on the clock and you’re down two and you have to make them both … but to make three?

“I tell you, unless you have been there for that feeling, that one is the putt at The Masters from about 10 feet away. It’s not for everyone.”

Fogg said a couple of USC players tapped him as he prepared to shoot, trying to rattle him. Fogg bounced the first one off the front of the rim but it went in. The second one was a swish. So was the third one.

Read the rest of the story at TucsonCitizen.com …