Unranked Kansas gave the No. 9 Arizona basketball team all it could handle last night in the first round of the EA Sports Maui Invitational in Lahaina, Hawaii, before the Wildcats crept out with a 61-49 win to advance to the semifinals.

Arizona will play the winner of the Connecticut-Arkansas game in tomorrow's second round at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN.

Kansas tied the score at 41 with 11:46 left to play on freshman guard Mario Chalmers' jump shot, but Arizona used a 20-8 run the rest of the game to come out with the win. [Read article]

Wildcats closing in on tourney title on senior guard's home tundra

Alaska. The word alone evokes thoughts of blizzards, snowdrifts, glaciers, snow and more snow.

Arizona. Conversely, our state conjures images of cacti, cow skulls, a big hole in the ground, heat and more heat.

Any link between the two states is highly unlikely - but then again, one link, senior guard Natalie Jones of the Arizona women's basketball team, isn't all that typical herself. [Read article]

UA benefits from last bye before Territorial Cup

A 13-day break between games should prove beneficial for the Arizona football team as it readies for the annual Territorial Cup game against ASU, head coach Mike Stoops said yesterday.

"We should be close to 100 percent healthy," he said. "The health of our team is as good as it's been all year, and we're a lot more excited to get into game week." [Read article]

Junior Robert Cheseret of the No. 4 Arizona men's cross country team reaped his share of rewards after yesterday's 10,000-meter race at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind.

Cheseret, who finished eighth out of 253 runners with a time of 29:51, was named an All-American for the second year in a row for his achievements this season in which he won the individual titles at the Pacific 10 Conference Championship and the NCAA Western Regional. [Read article]

From the Booth

To say both of the Arizona basketball teams are off campus this week would sort of be an understatement. Neither team is even in the continental U.S.

While men's basketball is off competing in paradise (Hawaii), women's hoops takes its game to Alaska, which doesn't exactly scream "fun in the sun" at you.

Both clubs are competing in corporate-sponsored tournaments - the men in the EA Sports Maui Invitational, the women in the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout. [Read article]