Gardner named Wooden Award finalist

Junior point guard among 30 players named for national award

Less than a year ago, UA point guard Jason Gardner considered leaving Arizona for the NBA Draft.

Nine months later, Gardner is poised to do something Loren Woods, Richard Jefferson, Michael Wright and Gilbert Arenas couldn't do - win the John R. Wooden Award as the nation's top men's basketball player.

Gardner, the Pacific 10 Conference's leading scorer, was named one of 30 finalists for the national award yesterday. The junior is averaging 22.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game this season.

Gardner, one of the Wildcats' few upperclassmen, plays an average of 37.9 minutes per game.

He joins, among others, ex-Wildcat Luke Recker and Pac-10 Conference opponents Sam Clancy, Jason Kapono and Casey Jacobsen.

Recker, who attended UA in 1999 before transferring to Iowa, is averaging 18.7 points and 4.6 rebounds this year for the Hawkeyes.

Clancy, Southern California's starting center, is averaging 16.6 points and just under nine rebounds this season, while Stanford's Jacobsen and Kapono, a UCLA guard, both average just over 19 points per game.

Should he win, Gardner would not be the first UA player to receive the Wooden Award. Former forward Sean Elliott took the honor as a senior in 1989.

Fullback forced to sit spring out

A Tucson newspaper reported Tuesday that freshman fullback Tremaine Cox lost his academic eligibility and will miss both the spring semester and spring drills.

According to a report in the Arizona Daily Star, Cox - the Wildcats second-leading rusher last season - failed to meet the university's minimum academic standards and will not attend classes at the UA.

UA head coach John Mackovic confirmed late Tuesday that Cox, who prepped at Tucson High School, will also be ineligible to participate in the Wildcats' spring drills, though he could possibly return for the 2002 regular season.

The pre-computer science sophomore gained 230 yards on 44 carries while scoring two touchdowns.