Salim Stoudamire will need to go perfect from the charity stripe for the remainder of the season to avoid a dubious distinction.
The junior guard entered the 2003-04 campaign 173-of-195 from the foul line in his career with the UA men's basketball team, good enough for a .887 percentage and No. 1 all-time in school history. This year may be considered an off year for the Portland, Ore., native who, despite shooting .471 from the floor, has missed 21 times from the line.
Despite the drop in shooting this year, Stoudamire (75-of-96, .781) is third on the Wildcats among players with 50 or more attempts from the line. Sophomore guard Chris Rodgers leads the team, shooting .852, followed closely by freshman Mustafa Shakur at a .818 clip. Only Andre Iguodala (82-of-106) has more attempts and makes than Stoudamire.
Stoudamire's shooting prowess became evident in the junior's first year with the Wildcats. As a freshman, Stoudamire made his opponents pay for their fouls with 39 straight makes, a Wildcat record.
Free-throw shooting aside, Stoudamire has equaled a career high for 3-point shots made with 73 through 26 games, moving him to ninth on the Wildcats' all-time list. The junior's 74 assists are good enough for another career best, surpassing the 54 dishes he doled out last season.
Arizona keeps creeping downward in polls
Arizona's slide down the polls continued this week, as the Wildcats slipped for the second straight week.
In the latest Associated Press poll released Monday, the Wildcats (18-8, 10-7 Pacific 10 Conference) find themselves down five spots to No. 22 in the nation, in the wake of a home split to Washington and Washington State.
Thursday's loss to Washington dropped Arizona to third in the Pac-10, half a game behind the upstart Huskies, with one conference game to play.
Despite the slip, Arizona remains in the Top 25, a position the Wildcats have held for 285 consecutive regular season polls. Since 1988, head coach Lute Olson has guided his squad into the Top 25 in all but two of those polls ÷ a pair of preseason polls in 1995-1996 and 2001-2002.
Arizona's No. 22 ranking is its lowest since Dec. 28, 1992, when the Wildcats were also ranked 22nd.
The Wildcats are ranked No. 17 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.
Arizona will conclude its Pac-10 schedule Sunday in McKale Center against Arizona State.
Cats' 20-win streak in jeopardy this year
Even with a win Sunday over ASU, Lute Olson's Wildcats will fail to win 20 games during the regular season.
Entering the 2003-04 campaign, an Olson-led squad has won 20 or more games in each of the past 16 seasons, the longest such streak in the nation. Arizona can still reach that mark with two victories in the postseason, either in the Pac-10 or NCAA Tournament.
Since taking over as head coach in 1983, Olson has failed to reach 20 wins in the regular season only four times. The last two seasons that Arizona failed to reach the 20-win plateau (1996-97, 2001-02), the Wildcats still managed to advance to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16. The 1996-97 Arizona squad won the program's first and only national championship.