Arizona men's basketball head coach Lute Olson has made his disdain for the Pacific 10 Conference tournament well known in the past.
Olson spoke his mind again yesterday, this time lashing out against the conference's athletic directors.
"I think it's about time our athletic directors recognize that they are killing our national image," Olson said.
According to the coach, the conference is suffering from its lowest image in years due to the lack of non-conference play, a tournament that doesn't include all 10 teams and a conference schedule that is two games too long.
After a 12-year hiatus, the Pac-10 tournament returned in 2002 with a revised format. Under the new revisions, only the top eight of the conference's 10 squads qualify for the tournament. To level the playing field, Olson thinks all 10 schools need to be involved - and the solution is easy, according to him.
"It's ridiculous that our tournament is not a Pac-10 tournament," Olson said. "It's a Pac-8 tournament."
By eliminating the conference dinner, Olson said additional games could be added to the tournament without missing an extra day.
"We could have solved the problem," Olson said. "No more missed days, all 10 teams involved."
When the matter last came to a vote, the elimination of the dinner passed unanimously by Pac-10 coaches. But the schedule change was later nixed by the athletic directors, who opposed the bill 8-2. The two minority votes came from Arizona's Jim Livengood and Stanford's Ted Leland.
Getting an unanimous vote from the coaches is nothing new, according to Olson. The coaches regularly vote on issues such as eliminating two games from the Pac-10 schedule.
Olson said he thinks a decrease in the number of games in the Pac-10 schedule would allow the schools to play more non-conference games and allow the league to start the conference schedule before Jan. 1.
"ADs are killing us by requiring all these games in the league," Olson said. "Right now, a team could go through here and win the remainder of the games impressively and lose ground in the RPI."
The RPI, or Rating Percentage Index, is calculated by three determining factors, including Division I winning percentage, schedule strength and opponent schedule strength. Since its inception in 1981, the NCAA tournament selection committees weight a school's RPI heavily when selecting teams for the tournament.
With fewer conference games, schools would be given the opportunity to play more games outside of the Pac-10 and postpone the conference schedule until Jan. 1.
"The RPI is affected in a negative way by all of these games we play in the Pac-10," Olson said. "Other than the Stanford and Arizona ADs, I don't know if it's that they are concerned with football of whatever, but it's really going to hurt all the schools this year if we don't get our normal number in the tournament."
Adding an additional game to the postseason could have a negative effect on a team forced to play three games in as many days, according to Olson.
Chances for injury increase with fatigue, the Hall of Fame coach said.
"I've said this for years," Olson said. "It's interesting that the people that have been around the longest are the ones who realize that we are making a serious mistake by doing what we are doing.
"There are some leaders among the ADs who are very outspoken and evidently can convince others that what they are saying is right."
Olson has spent 21 years in the Pac-10 - all with Arizona. Olson, along with Stanford's Mike Montgomery, is one of two remaining Pac-10 coaches who has been around since the conference temporarily did away with the tournament following the 1989-90 season.
"If some of these guys get hit in their budgets, maybe they'll listen to people who know what they are talking about," Olson said.
Stoudamire named Pac-10 Player of Week
UA guard Salim Stoudamire was named Pac-10 Player of the Week after his performance in Arizona's blowout wins over Southern California and UCLA last week.
Stoudamire became the Wildcats' 61st recipient of the conference's weekly award, tops in the Pac-10.
In two games last week, the junior averaged 28 points, 2.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists. Stoudamire torched the Bruins Saturday for a career-best 34 points. For the Portland, Ore., native, it was the second time in his three-year career that he tallied more than 30 points.
Stoudamire has scored at least 20 points or more in Arizona's last three games. He is averaging 16.1 points per game along with 3.0 assists in Arizona's 22 games this season.
In winning the award for the second time in his career, Stoudamire became the second Wildcat to earn the honor this season, following in the footsteps of sophomore Hassan Adams, who received the award Dec. 15.
Adams on the mend
Speaking of Adams, the sophomore is expected to be at full strength when the Wildcats take the court Thursday at Oregon.
After suffering a slight mid-left foot sprain against USC, Adams was slowed over the weekend against UCLA, relenting playing time to sophomore guard Chris Rodgers.
Despite the injury, Arizona's leading scorer managed to score 14 points and grab six boards against the Bruins.
"There a still some aches in it," Adams said. "But you fight through that. I'm just glad it wasn't a severe injury."
Adams is averaging 16.2 points a game, holding a basket's edge over Stoudamire (16.1) for the team's lead.
Wildcats in the rankings
Returning home after the team's longest road trip of the season proved to be a blessing for the Wildcats, who find themselves ranked two spots higher in this week's Associated Press poll.
Wins of 27 and 24 points over the Trojans and Bruins, respectively, enabled the Wildcats to jump to No. 14 in the nation, behind a resurgent North Carolina State team that knocked off No. 1 Duke last weekend. Olson's squad has been ranked in 283 consecutive polls.
Arizona's biggest jump in the national rankings comes in the ESPN/USA Today's Coaches poll, where the Wildcats moved up three spots to No. 13.