KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat

SALT LAKE CITY - After defeating Vermont 80-51 in the first round of the NCAA tournament, UA head coach Lute Olson gave the Wildcats a few hours off to see how some other team's would fare on the first day of tournament action.

After eating dinner at its hotel, it was back to business as usual for UA, with the team already preparing for its matchup on Saturday.

"We are going to go back to the hotel and let the players watch some of the other games," Olson said after the game. "After dinner we are going to begin to break down the tapes on Gonzaga. I want to do this tonight to keep the players focused."

The Wildcats may have been the favorite to defeat the Catamounts, but UVM was the crowd favorite.

In the past at the NCAA tournament, the underdog has usually been the crowd favorite at most neutral sites, with the same occurring in this game.

"Everyone always roots for the underdog," senior forward Luke Walton said. "I root for the underdog when I watch other games."

Arizona's three freshmen, Hassan Adams, Andre Iguodala, and Chris Rodgers, all made their NCAA tournament debut against Vermont, and each player impressed Olson.

Adams finished with eight points and three rebounds and Iguodala added five points, four rebounds and five assists.

Rodgers came in the game at the 11minute mark in the second half and played the remainder of the game. He finished with four points.

"All three freshmen are guys that are not bothered by pressure," Olson said. "All thee of them did a good job. Every where we play there is a lot of pressure on them and it doesn't bother them."

Senior forward Rick Anderson said that the freshmen's play today showed that they are mentally ready to play in the NCAA tournament.

"The freshmen showed that they are mentally ready," Anderson said. "That is a really big thing for us."

The high altitude in Salt Lake City caused a few players to feel more winded then usual.

Vermont forward Taylor Coppenrath, who played a game high 32 minutes, said the difference in altitude definitely caused him to tire quickly.

During the ladder half of the second half, Coppenrath and UA forward Luke Walton exchanged their thoughts on the altitude and Walton said he felt bad that Coppernath had too play so many minutes.

"We talked about how hard it was to breathe," Coppenrath said. "He said he felt bad that I had to play longer then he did."

Before the beginning of the Creighton-Central Michigan game, Myles Brand, president of the NCAA passed along a message via the public address announcer to thank all of the men and women that are overseas in the Persian Gulf for the conflict with Iraq.

After the message was read, a short moment of silence followed in their honor.