By Craig Degel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 21, 1998

UA faces Ducks, Beavers before trip to Palo Alto

Leigh-Anne Brown Arizona Daily Wildcat UA sophomore forward Eugene Edgerson (33) battles for the ball against New Mexico Saturday. Edgerson and the Wildcats hope to exact revenge against Oregon Thursday after losing to them last year.

With fifth-ranked and undefeated Stanford looming next Thursday at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif., it would, to the casual observer, be almost excusable if the Arizona men's basketball team did a little looking ahead despite hosting the Oregon schools this weekend.

Arizona head coach Lute Olson, however, sees it otherwise.

"When you're in league (play)," Olson said yesterday, "you don't think about next week or next week won't be as important as you think it is."

Well put. The sixth-ranked Wildcats (15-3) shouldn't look past Oregon, their opponent tomorrow night at McKale Center, inasmuch as the Ducks are one of the teams that beat UA last year, although that game was at MacArthur Court in Eugene. But this is a decidedly different Oregon team with a new coach in Ernie Kent.

"(Oregon) is playing off their win last year," sophomore forward Eugene Edgerson said. "In the hotel room after the game, we were talking like that if we kept playing like that, we would not go to the tournament. We still talked about that after the tournament."

It's deja vu all over again

As for Kent, while the Wildcats may be unfamiliar with the man, they are certainly familiar with his style.

Kent coached under Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery before taking the head coaching job at St. Mary's (Calif.) where last year he guided the Gaels to a 23-7 record and their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1989.

"They do things offensively a little like Stanford does," Olson said. "They're much more up tempo and perimeter oriented."

You really can go home again

Kent is living proof of that cliche.

He was a member of the Ducks basketball team back in the late 1970s and said that returning to coach Oregon was the job he had always dreamed of.

"Kent has deep feelings for Oregon," Olson said. "And if you're going to sell something, you've got to have deep feelings for what you're selling."

The proof of that is in Kent's first recruiting class which includes Howard Nathan and Freddie Jones, a duo Olson said were "as good as any pair you'll see coming into the league next year."

Don't call it a comeback

With two games under his belt, Arizona center Donnell Harris is finally getting back into the swing of things.

And his teammates are reaping the benefits.

"It is good to have Donnell back. It gives us a chance to bring two guys in and take two guys out," Edgerson said. "That way we can outrun teams."

Harris was unavailable yesterday so let Olson, whose opinion is really the one that matters most among the team, say it for him.

"Not having Donnell affected us a whole lot more than I think people realize," he said.

Super fans needed to combat Super Bowl

CBS is televising Sunday afternoon's contest with Oregon State opposite NBC's Super Bowl pregame coverage.

Super Bowl XXXII will kickoff at 4:37 p.m. so who exactly will be at McKale for the 2 p.m. tipoff?

"I think people will show up," Arizona forward Michael Dickerson said. "Who are we playing? Oregon State. Yeah, I think they will."

Olson, who knows how rabid Arizona fans can be, thinks McKale will still be filled, despite the obvious distraction.

"I think the season ticket holders will have no problem getting their tickets in the hands of somebody who wants to be there," he said.

One thing is for sure. Don't expect to see any cheeseheads at McKale.

Help Wanted: Must be scorer with experience. Apply at OSU

Things seem to be getting even darker for the Beavers.

In addition to losing six straight, OSU just lost its second-leading scorer, sophomore Ron Grady, for the season.

He bruised his ribs and suffered a lacerated kidney in a collision with Washington's 7-foot Patrick Femerling on Saturday.

With that in mind, consider coach Eddie Payne's thoughts on his Thursday matchup with Arizona State.

"Arizona State is not a team we can hope to outscore," he said. "We are going to have to find a way to slow down the tempo."

Cannot hope to outscore ASU? What about Arizona, a team scoring 101 points a game in conference play.

The Road to Cali

The theory goes that to win the Pacific 10 Conference, you have to win all your home games and go 5-4 on the road.

Olson does not think that mark will be good enough this year.

"Stanford is too good," he said. "And UCLA has two losses but they have already played at Arizona and at Stanford so that could change things."

But Stanford still must make its trips to Los Angeles and Arizona.

As for the Wildcats, they travel to the Bay Area next week and close the conference season March 7 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion.