Arizona men's hoops reserve roles go far beyond mop-up duty
With 55 seconds to play, Lute Olson walks down to the end of the bench.
Arizona's lead has grown to 20 in the game's closing minutes. Five Wildcats ÷ Fil Torres, Jason Ranne, Beau Muhlbach, Kirk Walters and Matt Brase ÷ sit waiting for a tap on the leg. Their coach delivers; they shed their warm-ups.
Fifteen thousand fans erupt, cheering both the starters walking off the court and the backups walking on. It's time for the scout team.
But scout team duty isn't just about those 55 seconds. When you play for the winningest college basketball program of the last 15 years, and the coach at the other end of that leg tap has been to five Final Fours, being a reserve means you're playing games all week.
"Our game is usually Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll scrimmage (the regular seven) to 15 or 20 points. That's our game for the week, so we always look forward to that," said Torres, one of the team's two seniors, along with Ranne. "We always try to give them the best game that we can."
"We've actually beat them a couple of times, too," he said. "We take pride in that."
Those scrimmages have gotten a lot more interesting in the last week, ever since the scout team added a member. With the Pacific 10 Conference schedule heating up, the Wildcats will need any advantage they can get if they intend to catch second-ranked Stanford (16-0, 7-0 Pac-10) for best of the West honors. So Arizona's not-so-secret weapon, for now at least, is a man partially responsible for the only National Championship banner hanging in McKale Center: Miles Simon.
The 1997 Final Four most valuable player has once again put his stamp on the Wildcats as a key ingredient with this year's scout team.
Simon, who has spent the last eight months in Tucson recovering from knee surgery after suffering meniscus, ACL and MCL tears in his knee during a pickup game last summer, said he is just grateful he gets the chance to play.
"I love it, just because it's going to help me get back in shape that much faster," said Simon, who hopes to be picked up by a European team soon. "Obviously, some of these guys are going to be pros. My reaction time has to be that much quicker because of how quick they are."
Torres said that Simon's presence has had a significant impact on both the scout squad and the starting unit.
"Miles is giving us a little bit of a break," he said, adding that Simon is still good enough to play in the NBA. "I think some of the guys don't realize that he played in the league."
Simon took on the role of emulating Oregon swingman Luke Jackson during practice last week, a role associate head coach Jim Rosborough said was crucial to the team's success against the Ducks last weekend.
"Our scout team is 80 percent better with him here," Rosborough said, noting Simon's ability to make the players around him better. "He played (as) Jackson when we were getting ready for Oregon, and he could imitate the guy exactly. He gets the scout team fired up and is probably the best leader we've ever had."
Sophomore forward Andre Iguodala faced off against Simon in practice during the week in order to prepare himself for the defensive assignment against Jackson on Saturday.
The result: Iguodala's defense held Jackson to just seven first half-points and forced the All-America candidate to turn the ball over eight times during Arizona's 90-66 win.
The scout teamers said they took their roles seriously, even before Simon showed up.
"It's a learning process coming here," said Muhlbach, a freshman. "Coming here not heavily recruited as a walk-on, you know you're going to be playing against preseason Wooden All-American award winners. Playing out here every day, you know you're going to get better."
Muhlbach said he's glad to know the coaching staff realizes how hard the scout team works.
"It feels good for them to notice that we were working hard for them and that we get a little bit of the credit as well."