Olson's lineup still scrambled heading into final exhibition

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Sophomore forward Justin Wessel (30) and freshman guard Traves Wilson (11) reach for a rebound against Sakalai Lithuania Nov. 8 at McKale Center. Wessel will probably start against Marathon Oil Saturday afternoon after ending strong against Tennessee on Friday.

But unlike past years, where there was a set starting five featuring established stars like Miles Simon and Michael Dickerson and point guard Jason Terry coming off the bench as the official sixth man, this year's rotation is much more of a flux.

Whereas Terry and fellow senior, center A.J. Bramlett, are locked into starting jobs, the shooting guard, swing forward and power forward spots are in question as the Wildcats begin to prepare for an exhibition game against Marathon Oil Saturday afternoon.

Freshman guard Traves Wilson's defense seem to have earned him the start at the shooting guard spot ahead of another freshman, Ruben Douglas, who scored eight points against Tennessee Friday.

"Traves is still one of our best defenders," Olson said. "He just zeroes in on a guy."

Douglas, though, has been practicing as the reserve point guard all week and will work behind Terry, who played all 40 minutes Friday.

The power forward slot has been a battle between junior Eugene Edgerson and freshman Michael Wright, who combined for 17 points and 12 rebounds against a larger Tennessee post unit.

Olson said Wright, who had three offensive rebounds which he put back up for layups in the first half of the Tennessee game, would have played more than 18 minutes, but he got tired.

"Based on his play, we would have liked 25 or 30 minutes out of him," Olson said. "But we're not going to leave anyone out there who's not running hard."

After a offensive outburst in the first exhibition game against Sakalai Lithuania, it looked like Richard Jefferson had nailed down the swing forward spot, but after starting Friday, Jefferson gave way to sophomore Justin Wessel, who played most of the second half.

Wessel played the final four minutes and ended up with six points and five rebounds. More importantly, he knocked away a would be game-winning dunk by Tennessee forward Isiah Victor.

"I've never really played in a crucial stretch of the game before," Wessel said. "Being out there really game me a lot of confidence."

Jefferson, however, isn't down because he didn't get the prime minutes, as he had against Lithuania, when he hit a crucial three-pointer as the Wildcats came from behind for the victory.

On the contrary, Jefferson said he thought that using two players at one position depending on the opponent could possibly be an advantage for the whole team.

"Look at the football team, they use two quarterbacks. That's a lot tougher than changing people at the 2-3-4 spots," Jefferson said. "They've been very, very successful with it, too. I definitely believe we can be as successful."

Olson said yesterday it looked as though Wessel would be the starter against Marathon Oil "unless he does something between now and Saturday that we don't like."

Regardless of who starts, though, associate head coach Jim Rosborough said that after the Tennessee game that between the six players vying for the three spots, he was extremely satisfied with the overall production.

"I look at it this way, between (Wessel) and Richard, between Ruben and Traves, between Gene and Michael - we've got some people at some positions," Rosborough said.

"If you go through the whole box score and look at the pairs and how they did, it's unbelievable," he added.

Seth Doria can be reached via e-mail at Seth.Doria@wildcat.arizona.edu.