By
Ryan Finley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
SAN ANTONIO -- Whatever you do, don't call Arizona nervous.
UA head coach Lute Olson and a number of his players spent most of yesterday's practice session joking around in an attempt to stay loose for tonight's regional semifinal game against Mississippi at the Alamodome.
While it's hard to see Olson as much of a clown, he said he takes his own relaxed attitude into important games.
"I don't worry," the silver-haired coach said. "Worrying is like sitting in a rocker - it keeps you very busy, but you do nothing."
Senior center Loren Woods said the team's relaxed attitude is due in part to the players, who have kept themselves loose throughout the week by clowning around.
All the players but one, that is.
"There are about 13 of 14 guys (that joke around)," Woods said. "Except for Eugene Edgerson. He's a kindergarten teacher, he's already graduated. The guy treats us like we're in kindergarten. He's always trying to spoil our fun."
Junior forward Richard Jefferson said the players try to mellow Edgerson out by pulling pranks during the team's frequent road trips.
"We lock him in the bathroom in the bus," Jefferson said.
Ole Miss senior forward Rahim Lockhart said yesterday the physical challenges associated with the Sweet 16 are nothing compared to what he would be putting up with had the Rebels lost last weekend.
With Lockhart's wife, Tarrah, due to give birth to the couple's second child any day, the jovial senior said he'd rather take his chances with Arizona's twin towers - Michael Wright and Loren Woods - than be in the delivery room when he becomes a father for the second time.
"I feel like if I'm not there when she has the baby, then I won't have to go through the verbal abuse I went through last time (when the couple's first child, Amirah, was born)," he said. "The first time she was pregnant, she was hurting and took it out on me. I heard some choice words."
Lockhart said that a religious conversion in spring 1999 helped turn him around, both on and off the court.
"I tell the guys on the team, everything in life goes hand in hand. You can't be a good basketball player and not be a good man in the long run. It's going to catch up with you."
The senior added that his own bangs and bruises will pale in comparison to the pain of childbirth.
"She's carrying about 20 points of baby around," Lockhart said of his wife. "All I have to do is play basketball."
While in San Antonio, UA players are finding it hard to remember the Alamo, probably because few of them have even heard of the historic fort that sits in the middle of downtown.
Luke Walton -- who made the dean's list at San Diego's University High School -- had to explain the history behind the historic fort.
"They just thought it was the Alamodome, where the Spurs play," Walton said.
"We were talking about going around and walking through it," sophomore point guard Jason Gardner said.
Walton's history lesson was met with mixed reviews.
"Luke was telling all the guys what it was last night," he said. "A lot of the guys were telling him, 'It's not a history lesson.' I don't know how he knows, Luke's just a smart guy. He reads a lot."
Garbage Time Points...The Wildcats are a 12-point favorite tonight against the Rebels ... Olson said yesterday he believes the three-point line should be moved back a few inches due to recent shooting successes by what he called 'pretend shooters'.
"I personally think it should be moved back," Olson said. "The international line is about eight inches further back than ours is. I think teams should be shooting around 33 percent from behind the arc and it is too (easy) to do that now." ... Woods fell hard on his left ankle during the Wildcats shoot-around yesterday afternoon but returned for the end of practice. The 7-foot-1 senior was seen with his ankle taped and wearing an ice pack toward the end of the 45-minute long event. ...
Olson said sophomore guard Gilbert Arenas has seen his best success this year when he employs a better shot selection.
"In high school, (Arenas) was the leading scorer in California at about 35 points per game," Olson said. "When you get to college, you now play with four guys who can shoot the ball and are used to scoring a lot of points, too."
When asked whether Arenas had matured, Jefferson laughed.
"He's definitely not more mature," the junior forward said. "He's just gotten more familiar with what coach wants from him."
