CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Aimee Grzyb, left, and Jessica Duger have a "senior" moment together after Arizona's win over Oregon on Senior Day last month in McKale Center. Grzyb leads the Wildcats into her hometown of San Jose, Calif., this weekend for the Pac-10 Tournament.

ð2004 Pac-10 Tournamentð

San Jose, Calif., is the home of this year's Pac-10 women's basketball tournament for the second straight year, and no one is happier about that than Arizona's Aimee Grzyb.

The senior guard played at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose and will head to the Bay Area one last time in a UA uniform with an automatic berth for the NCAA Tournament on the line.

"For me, there's no second time around. This is the last time I'm ever going to play, besides hopefully the NCAA Tournament," Grzyb said. "But if you lose the first game, who knows if you are going to play (again). Basically, every game I have to play like it is going to be my last because it could be."

Grzyb said her parents, Dennis and Patti, who she said came to as many of her games as possible, will be in attendance this weekend along with her youngest brother. She said her folks are very good at making their presence known.

"They're always loud, and they're always cheering," she said. "In high school, they would tape my games all the time, and every time I'd watch my games, I'd hear the remarks of my family (on tape) saying, ÎOh, what was she thinking?' and stuff like that. They're very loud."

But the Grzyb family ties at the event won't stop there. Her grandmother, aunt and uncle will also make the trip from Illinois and Colorado to the HP Pavilion to watch her play. Assistant coach Shimmy Gray said she estimates Grzyb needed a total of 40 tickets for the weekend.

Grzyb said she's excited to have the opportunity to play in front of her family and friends, but knows the pressures that can go with it. She said she always wants to do better when they are watching but that she tries not to think about that when game time comes.

Gray said players tend to put more pressure on themselves when they play in front of their hometown crowd, but that each player deals with it differently ÷ some well and some not so well.

Up until a month ago, Gray might have put Grzyb in that second group. But she said she's seen a change in the senior.

"She's welcoming pressure. She's stepped up a level," Gray said. "Earlier in the season, I would have worried. But now? With the way she's been playing, I'm not worried at all."

"Aimee's really starting to play like a senior," echoed head coach Joan Bonvicini.

Some of Grzyb's friends will be in the stands cheering for her while others may be taking the floor and playing against her.

If the Wildcats win their first game against the winner of the Oregon State-Washington State matchup, and Southern California wins its first-round game against Washington, Grzyb would face high school teammate Rometra Craig, a Trojan guard, in the second round. If the UA and California get through to the finals of the tournament, Grzyb would face Cal point guard Kristin Iwanaga ÷ also an Archbishop Mitty alumna.

Grzyb said she is very close to both and says there are others she knows from her prep days who play around the Pacific 10 Conference.

"At the beginning, it was like, ÎWhoa, we don't have the same jerseys on, and we're not passing the ball to each other.' But after three or four years, you get used to it," Grzyb said. "A lot of things they did in high school I'll recognize, and they'll know my tendencies. It's fun, though."

Though she likes playing against friends, Grzyb said she would have a lot more fun if her team won the Pac-10 Tournament. Besides the obvious reward of getting a free pass to the Big Dance, Grzyb said much more is on the line.

"It would give our team a lot more respect ÷ especially since we're talked about, ÎOh, we have this great home record, but on the road, we struggle.' We're going to be on the road for every game now, wherever we go, and I want to prove we can win by winning the Pac-10 Championship," she said.