SAUL LOEB/Arizona Daily Wildcat Sophomore UA guard Chris Rodgers locks up Stanford's Matt Lottich during the Wildcats' home loss to the Cardinal earlier this month. Head coach Lute Olson said his Arizona team needs to show that it can perform consistently this weekend against the Oregon schools.

After a Jekyll-and-Hyde road trip to Los Angeles that saw Arizona complete a 34-point turnaround - losing to USC by nine points Jan. 15 only to defeat UCLA 97-72 two days later - consistency is something the Wildcat coaching staff says is sorely lacking. Tonight, Olson's team gets a chance to achieve that uniformity at home against the Beavers of Oregon State.

"There is no question how well we can play," Olson said. "The difference between us and a Stanford or a Duke, UConn or Pittsburgh is their experienced players know you become consistent by consistent practice and the effort that you put in practice. We do not have that yet."

According to the Hall of Fame coach, consistency will develop in time with the emergence of team leaders, most notably from second-year players Andre Iguodala, Hassan Adams and Chris Rodgers.

"We need for our sophomores to become juniors in terms of their attitude toward consistent work ethic in practice," Olson said.

In 31 years of coaching, Olson said he has learned that inconsistencies in practice become downfalls in games.

"I've been here long enough to know that what happens out there on the practice court is what's going to happen out there during the games," Olson lamented. "It may not happen right away in games, but it is going to happen."

The comparisons to last season's squad continue to haunt this year's team. After going 28-4 in 2002-03, the Wildcats have already lost twice in just five Pacific 10 Conference games. While senior leadership from Luke Walton, Jason Gardner and Rick Anderson was the core of Arizona's run to the Elite Eight last year, this season's leaders are slow to develop.

Leadership has also come from unexpected sources. Olson's youngest starter, freshman Mustafa Shakur, is quickly catching the eyes of coaches and the respect of his teammates in practice.

"In practice, we are very pleased with the effort of Mustafa because he plays every second of practice just as hard as if it's the last second of a game," Olson said. "He's working really hard every day at the leadership, and I think at this point, he's been here long enough that guys are going to listen to him and accept what he is trying to provide."

But Olson said Shakur isn't teaching himself. Juniors Channing Frye and Salim Stoudamire garnered the coach's praise for their recent hard work in practice, where he said the two are playing more aggressively and maintaining a positive attitude in practice that seems to be rubbing off on the freshman. It helps that Frye and Shakur are roommates on the road.

After being embarrassed by the Trojans Jan. 15, it was Frye, Stoudamire and Iguodala who called a team meeting for the Wildcats to "air out" their grievances. It seems to have worked, as Arizona came out strong, trumping the Bruins by 25 points.

Frye gives the credit to the team's two elder statesmen, Jason Ranne and Fil Torres.

"I think a lot of people don't credit Jason Ranne and Fil (Torres) for what they do," Frye said. "They are one of the cooler heads. They see what's going on on the sidelines and help out that way, too."

Arizona returns home tonight to face Oregon State, a team the Wildcats swept in two games last season. For Arizona forward Adams, the time has come to put the Los Angeles trip in the past.

"We put this behind us," Adams said. "Everybody just needed to be on the same page to get us back to where we used to be."

The Beavers come into McKale Center tonight as owners of a 9-5 record and fresh off a weekend split with Washington and Washington State in Corvallis, Ore.

Beaver head coach and former Olson assistant, Jay John, makes his second return trip to Arizona, where he served under Olson for four seasons. Last year, the Wildcats stopped John's Beavers 72-60 during a stretch of the season in which Olson's squad was going through a period where the coach said his team was "mentally not where a good team should be."

If history is any indication, the recent losses to Southern California and Stanford may actually prove beneficial to the Wildcats. If Olson can get the consistency he desires out of his Wildcats, the Beavers and the rest of the Pac-10 could be in trouble starting tonight at 6:30. No one understands this better than Olson.

"It's what you learn after you know it all that really counts," Olson said.