Men's hoops closes out regular season at home

The No. 22 UA men's basketball team came up with a new method in practice this week to stop ASU forward Ike Diogu.

"We're working a 3-3 (zone) lately," said Arizona head coach Lute Olson with just a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "We'll probably use that full time against them."

The Wildcats (18-8, 10-7 Pacific 10 Conference) won't be allowed to use six players at a time in order to stop the Sun Devils' super sophomore when Arizona State (10-16, 4-13) hits Tucson this weekend. With the opening tip set for 2 p.m. in McKale Center, Arizona will, however, try to duplicate the outcome of the teams' early-January meeting, a 93-74 UA thrashing to open Pac-10 play. [Read article]

Pac-10 coaches split on tourney format

The women's basketball Pac-10 Tournament tips off tonight in San Jose, Calif., as the bottom four teams in this season's Pacific 10 Conference standings fight to enter tomorrow's tournament quarterfinals.

The women's tournament is structured differently from the men's, as all 10 teams are invited to San Jose's HP Pavillion to try to claim an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Only the top eight Pac-10 teams are allowed to compete in the men's tourney, which features a simple quarterfinal format. [Read article]

Reserve role more beneficial to Torres in long run

Sitting on the end of the bench wouldn't bode well for most college basketball players' career prospects. But UA senior Fil Torres doesn't mind the view from the sideline.

In fact, the physical education major's seat on the bench next to the UA coaching staff will most likely help further his basketball career better than if he were on the court playing. [Read article]

After rolling through its schedule unscathed, it ended up taking an act of God to give the 21-0 Arizona softball team a loss.

Because of inclement weather, half of the games in the No. 2 Wildcats' Hillenbrand Invitational were lost today, with the UA not playing Northern Iowa. Instead, Arizona plays only North Texas (6-22) at 5 p.m. The weekend schedule is the same, with the Wildcats playing Indiana and No. 24 Georgia Tech (15-3) tomorrow at 3 p.m., followed by UTEP (3-7) Sunday at 1 p.m. [Read article]

Head coach Andy Lopez said the Arizona baseball team still has a lot of unanswered questions heading into its weekend home series against Sacramento State ÷ and the pre-conference schedule is the time to answer them.

"The more games you play at this time of the season, the better," Lopez said. "Hopefully, that's the goal: to get all of your questions answered before Pac-10 play."

Arizona (7-5-1) continues its non conference schedule tonight at 7 against Sacramento State (10-8) at Sancet Stadium. The teams play again tomorrow at 3 p.m. and Sunday at noon. [Read article]

Scoring has not been a problem of late for the Arizona gymnastics team, which has scored over 196 in its last six meets. The No. 9 Gymcats' problem has been the outcome ÷ they are 1-3-1 in their last five competitions.

"We're focusing on keeping our mental sharpness through the entire meet," said head coach Bill Ryden. "The point now is, let's just get our gymnastics ready for competition. Florida's a good team." [Read article]

Arizona women's basketball players Shawntinice Polk and Dee-Dee Wheeler were named to this year's All-Pac-10 team yesterday by Pacific 10 Conference coaches. The award is the second for both players.

A 6-foot-5 sophomore center, Polk averaged 16.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game for the Wildcats this season en route to winning three Pac-10 Player of the Week awards.

Wheeler, a 5-foot-6 guard, led the Wildcats in scoring (17.7 per game), assists (4.7) and steals (2.9). [Read article]

After upsetting Arizona State in its last match, the Arizona women's tennis team looks for a few more upsets this weekend in its toughest home stand of the year.

No. 9 California and No. 1 Stanford visit Tucson today and tomorrow, respectively. The Golden Bears (8-3) bring in six seniors and five players ranked in the top 100, while Stanford (10-0) rolls in with seven top-100 players, led by No. 12 Erin Burdette, who holds an 11-2 record. [Read article]

The men's rugby team ends its home schedule with a double dose of California this weekend, returning to action against Cal State Long Beach today at 3 p.m. and UCLA at noon Sunday at Estevan Park.

Arizona returned to the win column two weeks ago with a 54-22 win over San Diego. The victory was the Wildcats' 14th in the series and snapped the team's four-game losing streak.

Building on their latest success Feb. 27 against Long Beach will require "being switched on," said head coach Dave Sitton. [Read article]

Riding a four-game winning streak, the Arizona men's lacrosse team squares off against No. 2 Santa Barbara at home this weekend.

The Laxcats (4-1) have had two weeks to prepare for the Gauchos (6-0), who put their perfection on the line at 1 p.m. Sunday at Murphy Stadium.

Junior attackman Luke Wilson, who scored four points in Santa Barbara's 10-5 win over the Wildcats in April, returns for the match up with Santa Barbara, as does fellow front-liner and team captain Hank Caulkins. [Read article]

Arizona's track and field teams open their home and outdoor seasons as they host the first annual Wildcat Classic tomorrow.

The meet will feature several collegiate, junior college and club teams. Action is set to begin with the women's hammer at 11 a.m. at Drachman Stadium.

"(The Wildcat Classic) is a good early season competition for athletes (to) run different events and prepare for the bigger outdoor meets later in the season," said UA head coach Fred Harvey [Read article]

Arizona has beaten San Diego in their only five meetings, including a 4-3 win last year in San Diego, but this year is different, as the Toreros come into Tucson Sunday ranked higher than the Wildcats.

No. 32 San Diego (5-3) is coming off a win over San Diego State, which ended a three game losing streak.

"Both teams have improved in the last two years," said assistant coach Tad Berkowitz. "It's going to be a tough match. We've each gotten stronger." [Read article]