Three days after clinching its first Pac-10 title in school history, it was time for the Wildcat women's hoops team to get its head out of the clouds and back onto the court.
"We know that's one goal accomplished, but there are many more ahead of us," said sophomore center Shawntinice Polk. "As a team, we have a list of our goals and we check them off as we go. This is just one and there's many more to come."
The Wildcats (22-7, 14-4 Pacific 10 Conference) practiced yesterday for the first time since their conference-clinching win at Washington. Their next goal is a championship in the Pac-10 Tournament, beginning Friday night in San Jose, Calif. No. 2 seeded Arizona plays the winner of Friday's play-in game between No. 7 Oregon State and No. 10 Washington State.
"The biggest thing for our team is taking care of us," Polk said. "I think it doesn't really matter who we match up with. If we're doing what we have to do, we should get that ÎW.'"
"We're preparing, obviously, for Oregon State and Washington State, but we also need to prepare just generally," said head coach Joan Bonvicini. "We want to get everyone back down to earth. I think we're very focused and very determined. We accomplished our first goal, and now we want to win the Pac-10 Tournament."
Bonvicini said the team was disappointed that Oregon State wasn't able to beat Stanford, which would have given Arizona sole possession of the regular season conference championship ÷ but that's why the Pac-10 Tournament is so important.
"There's a winner. There are no ties here," Bonvicini said.
"It was a heartbreaker because Oregon State had the game and they lost it," said junior guard Dee-Dee Wheeler. "We definitely wanted to be Pac-10 Conference champions ourselves, but it's all right. We'll share as co-champions."
Bonvicini says the team is hungry to win this year's tourney after the Wildcats were upended by the Cardinal 59-49 in last season's championship game.
"We were in the championship game and lost, and they didn't like that, and we have enough kids returning that they understand that," Bonvicini said.
Sophomore guard Natalie Jones said the team is peaking at the right time.
"We're more focused, and we're more focused because we have to be," Jones said. "It's coming to the end, down to crunch time. Our chemistry has always been good, but people are stepping up more ÷ even the inexperienced freshmen, they're stepping up, and that's great because we're going to need that coming into the tournament."
Polk named week's best for third time
No, this isn't a rerun: Polk was named Pac-10 Player of the Week for her performances at WSU and UW last week. The award is the seventh of her career and her third in the last seven weeks.
Polk posted 19 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, six blocks and three steals in Arizona's Thursday night win over the Cougars. She went on to tally 22 points and 14 boards Saturday at Washington.
Polk says she appreciates the honor but would rather have the attention focused on the team.
"If I had it my way, that's how it would be," she said.
Cats continue to climb point chart
Polk cracked the 1,000-point barrier Saturday at Washington, giving her 1,015 points in her UA career. She is 12th on the UA's all-time scoring list.
By getting there in 60 games, Polk reached 1,000 quicker than any Wildcat in school history. Arizona all-time leading scorer Adia Barnes reached 1,000 in her 61st game.
Polk didn't know about her achievement until someone told her after the game.
"It doesn't matter to me. I was still juiced about the win," she said.
Wheeler's 17 points at UW gives her 1,358 for her career, good for third all-time. Wheeler is still 262 points behind No. 2 scorer Elizabeth Pickney (1,620).
Senior Aimee Grzyb is ninth on the all-time list with 1,174 points. Grzyb scored 15 against the Huskies, putting her 25 behind No. 8 Lisa Griffith.
The 5-foot-7 guard became the UA's all-time minutes leader at Washington. Grzyb has logged 3,723 minutes for Arizona, 23 more than previous leader Regina Grennan.
Hey, remember the 70s?
The Wildcats entered uncharted territory in their wins over the Washington schools last week.
Arizona scored more than 70 points for the first time on the road this season when they scored 77 Thursday night at Washington State. The Wildcats went on to put up 71 in their 17-point shellacking of the Huskies.
"They're just playing looser and more confident," Bonvicini said. "We're getting scoring from different people."
Arizona's previous season high away from McKale Center was 70 in a four-point win Jan. 22 at Oregon. The Wildcats were averaging 58.8 points per game away from McKale until their Washington visit.
Cats inch closer to top 25
Winners of four straight, the Wildcats earned 57 votes in this week's Associated Press poll, up from 15 votes a week ago. Arizona is four spots outside of the AP top 25.
The Wildcats garnered 30 votes in this week's ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, up from 16 votes last week.
Polk doesn't mind being unranked.
"It doesn't matter because that just means we can take that many more teams by surprise," she said.