DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior Luke Walton (left) will be back in action tonight against Nike Elite, but sophomore guard Salim Stoudamire (right) will be sidelined.

With the start of the regular season only four days away, head coach Lute Olson still has his focus turned to his team, not the teams that the Wildcats are playing.

When Arizona hits the floor tonight at 7:30 in McKale Center against the Nike Elite team, many of the Wildcat players won't even know who's on the opposing roster.

"I have no idea what we're going to see, because we don't have tapes on them and I don't know who's on their team," senior forward Luke Walton said.

But that doesn't mean the Wildcat players are not looking forward to the game tonight.

"It's like coach says, every time we go out, we need to be better than we were last time." Walton continued. "We looked good against EA Sports, but we also did a lot of bad things."

Olson did mention Monday that the Nike Elite team has given some other teams problems, and his team could face similar ones.

"They have good all-around balance," Olson said. "The thing they do very well is get the ball down court quickly. I'm sure that will be a challenge to us with our pressure.

"What they've normally done in the past is send a shooter down court, so once they break the press, they'll fire away from three-point range."

On Friday night, the Nike Elite team took on Michigan and lost by only four points, 81-77.

Dave Ferguson, a former St. Louis player, led the Nike team against the Wolverines, scoring 26 points on 6-of-7 from three-point range. The EA All-Stars took advantage of the Wolverines getting back slowly on defense when they pressed and converted on open three-point shots.

"I would expect that they'll try to do and create the same type of problems for us," Olson said.

The Nike Elite team is coached by Glen Sergent, a coach who is well-respected around the country and who tries to give players a chance to either get a contract in the United States or overseas. Sergent was also the coach of the team when it was known as Marathon.

This year's squad also features former Northern Arizona basketball player Casey Frank. Frank, who went to North High School in Phoenix, was a Big Sky Conference first-teamer in 1998-99.

"They have some size, and they always have shooters," Olson said.

Arizona will have Walton, who didn't play against the EA Sports All-Stars because of an ankle sprain, back in the lineup tonight. Walton returned to practice Saturday and will start tonight.

"It's nice having Luke back, because he brings a lot to this team, such as leadership, and he brings matchup problems on the inside," senior point guard Jason Gardner said.

Sophomore Salim Stoudamire is still unavailable with a high ankle sprain, but is expected to return to practice tomorrow.

Olson will be featured on the 9 p.m. edition of ESPN's "SportsCenter" tomorrow as part of the "Bilas on the Bench With:" series.

ESPN's Jay Bilas observed Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, Tom Izzo of Michigan State, Gary Williams of Maryland, Roy Williams of Kansas and Kelvin Sampson of Oklahoma and showed how they ran their teams through practice.