Stoudamire's status against UW questioned
As the UA men's basketball team prepared for tonight's home matchup with Washington, rumors arose on Internet message boards regarding Salim Stoudamire's status with the team.
Stoudamire denied rumors late last night that he would not be playing for at least part of the tilt with the same Husky team that upset the Wildcats, 96-83, in Seattle last month.
"No, I haven't heard any rumors," the junior shooting guard said as he left McKale Center.
Stoudamire is Arizona's (17-7, 9-6 Pacific 10 Conference) leading scorer this season, averaging 16.8 points per game.
Assistant coach Josh Pastner deferred all questions to associate head coach Jim Rosborough, who said the team would have no comment on Stoudamire's status until today.
The rumors were reported just after 2 p.m. yesterday on goazcats.com, a self-described "totally unofficial UofA fan site."
The possible suspension could force Arizona to play at least part of the game with just a six-man rotation. Utility guard Chris Rodgers would most likely be inserted into the starting lineup in place of Stoudamire.
Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar said earlier this week he expected the Wildcats to have a different look, but for an entirely different reason: the Wildcats' return to McKale Center, where they have lost just once all season.
"At McKale, (Arizona) is an entirely different team," Romar said of the No. 17 Wildcats, back home for their final three regular-season games, beginning tonight. "They're going to be much tougher."
The Wildcats have won five of six home games this season, opposed to their 4-4 record on the road.
With second place in the Pac-10 potentially at stake and the Wildcats once again reeling after an unsightly road loss, Arizona will have to play like a different team from the one that lost to Oregon State last weekend, 90-84. For that matter, the Wildcats will need to play like a different team from the one that lost at Washington (13-10, 8-6), last month.
Stanford clinched the Pac-10 regular-season title with a pair of wins over Southern California and UCLA in Los Angeles last weekend, but the race to fill the other seven spots in next month's Pac-10 Tournament is still wide open.
The UA currently sits in second by half a game over the Huskies, with Oregon (12-9, 7-7) and California (11-12, 7-7) trailing UW.
Arizona head coach Lute Olson said that while Washington's up-tempo, high-scoring style of play matches up with Arizona's athleticism better than any other Pac-10 team, it's the Wildcats' lack of focus that concerns him most.
"It has to be physical and mental intensity, and I think we're lacking in the latter," Olson said.
Sophomore Hassan Adams echoed Olson's sentiment.
"We just need that intensity from the jump," Adams said. "They're a team that's going to get down, play dirty, play hard. We need to match that."
One of the keys for shutting down a Husky squad that has turned the season around in a hurry: matching up with UW sparkplug Nate Robinson.
The 5-foot-9 sophomore guard torched the Wildcats for a career-high 31 points during Washington's upset of then-No. 9 Arizona earlier this season. Robinson sparked a 27-12 UW run over the game's final five minutes, shocking the crowd with a highlight-reel dunk off of an alley-oop.
"He plays hard. Either you're going to match his intensity or you're going to fall down and let him roll over you," said Adams, who sits second on the UA team in both scoring and rebounding, averaging 16.5 points and 7.2 rebounds. "The second time around, we're going to change what we need to do on him, most definitely."
Junior center Channing Frye tagged inconsistency on defense as his biggest concern heading into the Wildcats' final three regular-season games.
"I think sometimes we play defense when it's convenient, instead of playing every play like it's our last," Frye said. "We need to go out there and be determined to stop our man or to help somebody else out."
Romar said his team will have to play better than it did during its win over the Wildcats last month if it wants to duplicate the feat in McKale Center.
"I don't think confidence will be an issue for us, but it's a tall order to go into McKale and beat Arizona," he said. "We'll be confident that we can go in and compete, but you don't just go in and walk away with a victory. You have to go in and take it."