By
Keith Carmona
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wildcat seniors emotional for final 2 home games
As fresh-faced teenagers from Iowa, Louisiana and Tucson, they came to UA with hopes of becoming champions.
And they succeeded early.
Four years after winning a National Championship in their freshman season, Wildcat seniors Justin Wessel, Gene Edgerson and John Ash are hoping to leave the university with just one more ring on their finger.
But before they delve into the NCAA Tournament, they must say good-bye to a building that has been a second home for five seasons.
When Arizona faces Oregon State tonight at 6:30 and Oregon on Saturday at 6 p.m., Wessel, Edgerson, Ash and fellow seniors Lamont Frazier and Loren Woods will be playing their final games in McKale Center.
"This is a weekend that you look forward to, but wish you just didn't have to go through it," Edgerson said. "I enjoy playing in McKale with all of the fans behind me. It is so special when you have so many people cheering you on, making you play better."
Each having spent a redshirt season while at UA, the three remaining Wildcats from the 1997 National Championship team said leaving Tucson with the parades, ceremonies and banners like in their freshman season would help to bring their careers full-circle.
"It is strange because we won my first year and I didn't expect that," Edgerson said. "But it would be just great to say that I came into this program as a champion and was able to leave a champion. That would be just awesome."
Wessel said that he's made special plans to help conjure memories and to inspire his teammates.
"Some of us are going to be wearing our National Championship rings around this week to dinners and banquets," he said. "We want to get the point across to the younger guys of what it is like (to win a championship) and just keep reminding them that they don't have one."
Not that he wants to jinx his team, but Wessel sees uncanny ties between this squad and the 1997 team.
"That team was kind of streaky too," he said. "We didn't win six (consecutive) games that year until the tournament came around, so when you look at the hot and cold spells that this team has been through, you get to thinking. But in 1997, we dropped our final two before the tournament, so let's hope that history doesn't repeat itself."
Buried in the Pacific 10 Conference race with little chance of emerging as the winner, Olson also remembers when his team finished fifth in league play.
"I think that all we need to do is look back at '97," Olson said. "Was it more important to win the conference title or the NCAA title? That's not that ancient of a historical fact that (the players) don't recognize that."
The typically rapturous Edgerson said the culmination of his UA basketball career will be enough to bring tears to a 6-foot-6, 240 pound man.
"How can you not cry and not be emotional?" Edgerson asked. "We've been here for five years and have gone through a lot. Back in 1996, we started off as boys and now we are men because of all the stuff we've gone through."
In hopes of spoiling the senior-weekend festivities, Oregon State arrives in Tucson with the attention of the Wildcats peaked more than usual.
Last weekend, the eighth-place Beavers beat USC and nearly upset No. 15 UCLA in overtime.
"I think they are playing very competitively right now," Olson said. "They have become very patient offensively and are defending well."
While Arizona defeated OSU 68-41 on Feb. 3, Ash hopes that margin increases so that he can see more court time in his final weekend at home.
"It is going to be emotional because this has been a major part of my life," the Tucson native and Salpointe High School graduate said. "I will be sad on Saturday when I have to say good-bye to the McKale crowd because I have loved playing for Coach O and being a part of this program. As a kid, I dreamed of being a part of this, and now it's coming to and end."
