"Tell them … tell the team to bear down"

Former UA star involved with another book about Cats’ program

By Javier Morales

Sean Elliott will write the afterword for an Arizona basketball book written by Steve Rivera, to be released later this year

Steve Rivera, the Tucson Citizen’s longtime UA basketball beat reporter before the print edition went defunct last year, is working on another book detailing the Arizona basketball program. Sean Elliott has agreed to write the afterword for the book, which tentatively is to be released by the end of the year. Rivera, now a TucsonCitizen.com blogger who has also authored Tales from the Arizona Hardwood and The University of Arizona National Championship book, believes nobody is more popular in Arizona sports history over the last 30 years than Elliott, except for possibly former UA coach Lute Olson. “But given the last few years, it’s hard to argue about Elliott — he’s Tucson’s favorite son,” Rivera communicated to us. “He was a bonafide star with no arrogance about him. Don’t you miss those days?”

Elliott, the school’s career scoring leader, understands his lofty place in Arizona history but he is not defined by his popularity. “I’m OK with it,’’ Elliott, a contestant in our Bear Down Leader competition, told Rivera recently about his Tucson fame. “But to me, it doesn’t really matter anymore. I’m very proud of my accomplishments, but if someone beats my records, my hat is off to them. I’m not going to let that define my whole career. I’m proud of what I did. … But I do feel it’s going to be hard for someone to come in and score more points. Those better players just come in and play for a couple of years. But I’m happy about my career and especially because I’m from Tucson.’’ … For a player to reach Elliott’s 2,555 points, he would have to average almost 639 points a year. Put that into perspective: Derrick Williams led the UA with 486 points last season. He would have to first stick around three more years and average almost 690 points a season. Only four players in the history of the program, including Elliott (743 points in 1987-88 and 735 in 1988-89), have scored at least 690 in a season. Khalid Reeves is the season scoring record holder with 848 points in 1993-94 and Jason Gardner posted 692 in 2001-02. One positive note for Williams: Elliott scored only 13 points more than he did as a freshman, but what are the odds that Williams will stay all four years and score at a similar rate like Elliott in Sean Miller’s balanced system? …

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Sons of former Bruin greats under legendary coach played for Olson

By Javier Morales

Bruce Larson may not have been the most successful basketball coach in Arizona history, but he certainly was one of the most bold. Larson scheduled the Cats to play against the late John Wooden’s UCLA national championship teams in the 1964-65 and 1969-70 seasons. The Bruins were 28-2 in each of those seasons and they beat the UA in Los Angeles by scores of 99-79 on Dec. 28, 1964, and 90-65 on Dec. 1, 1969. Even in a down year by Wooden’s standards — 18-8 in 1965-66 with the Bruins — his team defeated Larson’s club, 84-67, also in Los Angeles.

Digging deep into the archives, we found a Tucson Daily Citizen article about the 1964 game that includes flattering comments about some of the UA’s players from Wooden, who passed away Friday at age 99. Arizona forward Albert Johnson led all scorers with 22 points and outplayed All-American Keith Erickson, who tallied 16, in the UA’s 99-79 loss. “Our boy Erickson has handled some of the toughest men around,” Wooden was quoted as saying, “but he told me he thought Johnson was about as good as any of them.” Erickson played 12 years in the NBA and was also an Olympic volleyball player. Johnson? Although he averaged 9.9 rebounds in his UA career, Johnson never played in the NBA and could not crack the All-Western Athletic Conference first-team. That is a snapshot of how dominating UCLA was under Wooden against the very best programs and those seeking an identity like Arizona. UCLA was on a different plane than others with Wooden as coach similar to Arizona (on a lower scale) under Lute Olson when the Wildcats did not not lose more than five Pac-10 games in a season from 1985-96 to 1995-96 and finished 17-1 in the conference five different times. …

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FORMER UA PLAYERS IN THE NBA (Thru 4/14/2010)

* -- Rookie season. Bold -- Career highs

By Javier Morales

Thirteen years after leading Arizona to its first NCAA title, NBA veteran guards Mike Bibby and Jason Terry are still enjoying success on the court. Their respective teams — Atlanta and Dallas — are currently the No. 3 team in each conference with one week remaining.

Former UA guard Mustafa Shakur will not be in the NBA playoffs with Oklahoma City (which has signed him for the remainder of the season) but he is an important player for Tulsa in the NBA’s D-League playoffs.

Other former Wildcats assured to be in the NBA postseason include the ailing Luke Walton (out most of the season with a back injury) of the Los Angeles Lakers, Channing Frye with the Suns, Richard Jefferson of the Spurs and Jerryd Bayless of the Blazers.

Rookies Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill will be at home watching the playoffs despite Houston’s 39-38 record.

Also not in the postseason are the two best scorers Arizona has produced who are currently in the NBA — Gilbert Arenas of the Wizards and Andre Iguodala of the Sixers.

Arenas was sentenced last month to 30 days in a halfway house for bringing guns into the Wizards locker room. He avoided extended jail time. However, the three-time NBA All-Star will first serve two days of his sentence at the Montgomery County (Md.) Pre-Release Center, which means he will be behind bars at that time.

Don’t expect Arenas to be Tweeting while in the halfway house. According to a Washington Post report, residents can have visitors, and they are given access to a computer room to hunt for jobs. But Internet surfing, Facebooking and Tweeting are forbidden.

Also according to the Post, residents cannot have cellphones, laptops, video games or portable DVD players in their rooms. They can bring their own TV, no bigger than 13 inches, but they can’t have cable.

Read about career milestones reached by some ex-UA players on the jump

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Hill, D’Antoni debate Knicks coach use of rookies

Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni responded to Jordan Hill‘s claim that the coach doesn’t like to play rookies by saying, “I don’t like bad rookies.”

• Our Anthony Gimino posts a story about the UA’s spring football practice at FoxSportsArizona.com
• Jason Terry is following doctor’s orders and wearing a protective mask in order to keep playing this season for Dallas
• Luke Walton, who has held a clipboard on the Lakers’ bench lately, looks to return from his back injury in early April
• Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni lauded Jordan Hill when he drafted him but now he insinuates that Hill is a “bad rookie”.
• The Houston Chronicle offers more on Hill’s claim that D’Antoni does not like to play rookies
• The Kansas City Star reports that Sean Miller recruited K-State leading scorer Jacob Pullen while he was at Xavier
• Xavier finally has its coach for the future in Cincinnati native Chris Mack

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Look Ahead and Back: Cats vs. Cardinal

Compiled by Javier Morales

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

Sean Elliott led the top-ranked Cats with 22 points in their upset loss at Stanford in 1988, the UA’s lone defeat in the Pac-10 that season

Feb. 3, 1979: Arizona 63, Stanford 62 – Arizona guard Russell Brown hit a 10-foot jumper as time expired to give the Cats the win in the first Pac-10 meeting of the teams at Palo Alto. The Wildcats also won for the first time in Maples Pavilion after four losses dating back to 1954. Brown scored Arizona’s last five points in the last 59 seconds and sparked the Wildcats’ comeback from an 11-point deficit earlier in the second half. Brown and Joe Nehls led Arizona with 15 points. Kimberly Belton led the Cardinal with 25.

Feb. 4, 1988: Stanford 82, Arizona 74 – Todd Lichti scored 23 points and Howard Wright 22 as Stanford scored the final 10 points of the game to upset No. 1-ranked Arizona, ending the Wildcats’ eight-game winning streak. Stanford, which trailed by 9 points in the first half, took control of the backboards in the final five minutes to shut out Arizona. Sean Elliott led the Wildcats with 22 points, but could not score after making a short jumper that put Arizona ahead for the last time at 74-72. Lichti then hit a 15-foot bank shot to start Stanford’s 10-0 streak, and ended it with two free throws. Arizona lost at Stanford five consecutive times including this game: 58-55 in 1985, 62-56 in 1986 and 75-73 in 1987 and 83-78 in 1989. It was Arizona’s only defeat in the Pac-10. The next time the Wildcats lost was two months later in their first Final Four appearance against Oklahoma.

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47.4 percent scoring contribution tops major-college programs

By Anthony Gimino and Javier Morales

On second thought, maybe we should not be all that surprised about the UA freshmen accounting for 94 percent (32 of 34 points) of the Wildcats’ scoring in the second half against Oregon on Thursday. The heavy contribution of newcomers follows suit from two previous major coaching changes within the program. When Fred Snowden was hired from Michigan in 1972, he brought along with him the Kiddie Korps duo of freshmen Eric Money and Coniel Norman from Detroit. Money and Norman scored a majority of the Cats’ points as freshmen, including Money’s 37 points in his first collegiate game. In Lute Olson’s case, the newcomers in his first season of 1983-84 who contributed the most were junior college transfers (Pete Williams and Eddie Smith), although freshmen guards Michael Tait and Steve Kerr were often key contributors.

With Sean Miller, the bulk contributions of the newcomers goes beyond two individuals. Miller can rely on Pac-10 Freshman of the Year candidate Derrick Williams along with a committee of versatile forward Solomon Hill and New York City products Lamont “MoMo” Jones and Kevin Parrom. Ukrainian big man Kyryl Natyazhko has not been as advanced as his freshmen counterparts — although he was one of the higher rated prospects coming in — but he had his best game against the Ducks with four points and five rebounds in 11 minutes. … According to StatSheet.com, only two other major-conference Division I schools have at least five freshmen and no more than two upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) like Arizona. They are Iowa (which like the Cats has five freshmen, one junior and one senior) and Washington State (which has eight freshmen, no juniors and one senior). The Wildcats depend on their freshmen far more than the Hawkeyes and Cougars — or any other major-college program for that matter. The UA frosh account for 47.4 percent of the team’s scoring (34.2 points per game out of 72.1 overall). Iowa’s percentage is 34.2 (24.3 points per game out of 70.9) while Wazzu’s mark is 33.2 (25 points per game out of 75.2). With such an influx of talent, and a brand new coaching staff, Arizona realistically should not be in line for postseason play. But with six games remaining, the Cats still have a chance. …

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Budinger and Frye pleasant surprises, others not faring well

ALL-STAR LINKS OF INTEREST:

• Chase Budinger rates as the 15th best rookie according to David Thorpe of Scouts, Inc. Jordan Hill ranks 39th.
• Former UA recruit Brandon Jennings talks about his surprising success in his rookie season with the Bucks
• ESPN reporter writes that former UA players Richard Jefferson and Mike Bibby are two of the biggest disappointments of the NBA season
• San Francisco Chronicle: For repentant athletes, Gilbert Arenas sets fine example
• Andre Iguodala “posterizes” LeBron James? Yes, he does in this video.
  

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  Jason Terry: Jim Rome correspondent at Dallas’ All-Star festivities

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  By Javier Morales

  One of the best recruiting pitches going for new UA coach Sean Miller these days are the 10 former Wildcats in the NBA. His message to recruits of the Classes of 2010, 2011 and even 2012: You can get there from here.

  If, for example, the Sixers’ Andre Iguodala makes ESPN’s Top 10 plays of the day — which is the norm more than the exception — chances are Miller or his assistants tell a recruit, “Check out ESPN’s top 10 plays. Did you see what Iguodala did? You know he played at Arizona right?”

  Iguodala, Phoenix free-agent acquisition Channing Frye, Houston rookie forward Chase Budinger and Dallas veteran Jason Terry have played well enough at the All-Star break to be shining examples for the Arizona program. While the season has seen some extraordinary individual performances — including Terry’s 36 points against Golden State on Monday — some of the ex-Wildcats are hoping for a reversal of fortunes.

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