By
Keith Carmona
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Edgerson ready to play meaningful game
Enough with the polls, the preseason accolades and all the national media hype. The UA men's basketball team just wants a chance to prove its worth.
The Wildcats have had only two full practices, but the squad knows it has something special assembled this season and are counting down the days until the season begins.
"I can hardly wait until the fifth of November, I am just so anxious for that day," senior forward Eugene Edgerson said about the Wildcats' first game, an exhibition against the California All-Stars. "This whole team is just so pumped up about working towards all those expectations. We want to get out and show everyone that we are the best team out there and nobody is going to tear us down."
Edgerson is even more eager for the season to start after sitting out the 1999-2000 season to finish up his bachelor's degree. He hasn't played in an official UA game since the Wildcats' first round loss to Oklahoma in the 1999 NCAA Tournament.
"Taking the year off really made me realize how much I missed the game of basketball," he said. "I've been playing basketball ever since the age of eight, and for me to just up and take off a whole year makes me just want to get out there and compete."
With late-season injuries to senior center Loren Woods and junior forward Richard Jefferson, the Wildcats were operating off a seven-man rotation and sorely missed the charge Edgerson brought off the bench.
"I'm looking forward to providing that spark because that's my job," Edgerson said. "My job is to come in and make sure that the guys pick it up and it's going to happen. I am going to get in everybody's face and let them know that this is my senior year and I'm not going out as a loser."
Arizona's No. 1 preseason ranking by ESPN.com this weekend doesn't come as a surprise to the players, who feel that their versatility and depth make them an obvious choice.
"Honestly, I think this team would be the No. 1 team in the nation without me," Jefferson said. "So, for me, there is no pressure. I just have to go out and play hard and do what I've always done."
The Wildcats have reason to be confident.
While UA's starting roster boasts five preseason Wooden Award Finalists in Jefferson, Woods, junior forward Michael Wright and sophomore guards Gilbert Arenas and Jason Gardner, the players seem more concerned with team success than with any individual awards.
"There will always be attention paid to a player's draft status or what their stats are looking like, but we know that in order for us to win a national championship, the numbers on the box score are really going to be spread out," Gardner said. "This is an unselfish group and we all like to see our teammates do well.
"We are going to do really well this year because our first thought on the court is to find the open player with an open shot."
After all the predictions about the Wildcats have been cast, the team said that its finest attribute may be its enthusiasm and affinity for one another.
"We are all goofy, and that is what helps us as a team," Arenas said. "We all play together outside the gym, and we all have fun. The trust and brotherhood that we share is going to help us become the best team in the nation."
