Men's basketball team faces Oklahoma Friday

Arizona Daily Wildcat

UA head coach Lute Olson had said he expected to be placed as a No. 3 seed after beating UCLA by 17 points Saturday, but the NCAA Selection Committee disagreed, placing the

No. 10 Wildcats (22-6, 13-5 Pacific 10 Conference) as a No. 4 seed in the Midwest Regional starting play against the University of Oklahoma on Friday.

"I was thinking we were possibly in a position for a three seed," Olson said, "but then when I take a look at the three's, you can make a case for the others over us."

Tickets Tickets for the first and second rounds of the tournament in Milwaukee are sold out, but Bon Voyage Travel will have a limited number of packages which include air fare, hotel and tickets. Call 797-2287 for more information.

Olson had also said he expected to be placed in the West or South, but was instead placed in the Midwest, perhaps the toughest of all four regions.

Other than Big 10 Champion Michigan State, which was given the No. 1 seed, the region contains five other major conference champions in No. 2 seed Utah (Western Athletic Conference), No. 3 seed Kentucky (Southeastern Conference), No. 5 seed University of North Carolina-Charlotte (Conference USA), No. 6 seed Kansas (Big 12) and No. 12 seed Rhode Island (Atlantic 10).

If the Wildcats win their first round game, they would face the winner of the URI-UNCC game Sunday for the right to go to the Sweet 16 in St. Louis March 19.

But before thinking ahead to the second round, Olson said his team has to concentrate on the Sooners, who were the lowest seeded at-large team to get a bid to the tournament.

Oklahoma, at 20-10, was thought to be out of the running for an NCAA bid after losing three out of their last four games, including a 60-57 loss to in-state rival Oklahoma State last Friday in the second round of the Big 12 Conference Tournament.

But with wins at home against Missouri and Arkansas and on the road against Big 12 regular season champion Texas, the Sooners got the tournament invitation over other "bubble" teams like Xavier and Rutgers.

While Arizona and Oklahoma haven't played since 1990, Sooners head coach Kelvin Sampson is familiar with the Wildcats and UA head coach Lute Olson from his seven seasons as head coach at Washington State.

Sampson, though, never defeated the Wildcats while with the Cougars, losing all 15 matchups by an average of 19 points per game.

Olson said that from his knowledge of the Sooners, they are much like the Wildcats in that they use a lot of the same half-court offensive sets, but that they are also willing to run when given the chance.

"They do not play much different from us," Olson said. "They play up tempo and they run some half court stuff but not all that different from what we do."

Though Olson said in a brief teleconference it didn't matter where or whom the Wildcats play, he did say he was happy about playing on Friday rather than Thursday, considering the players are also students in the middle of midterms.

"It gives us an extra day for preparation," he said. "That is better, we are in school so that gives us an extra day."

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Tickets for the first and second rounds of the tournament in Milwaukee are sold out, but Bon Voyage Travel will have a limited number of packages which include air fare, hotel and tickets. Call 797-2287 for more information.

Seth Doria can be reached at Seth.Doria@wildcat.arizona.edu.