Look at the calendar and confirm it for yourselves, March is just 10 days away. Now on to the UA men's basketball notes.

Simon speaks: After a week he will not soon forget, sophomore guard Miles Simon said he did learn something from hitting a 70-foot shot to beat Cincinnati, missing two foul shots to beat UCLA, and then missing the team bus to USC.

"What you take away is that things can change really quick," Simon said. "One minute you are up in the air and nothing can bring you down, and the next minute the roof is falling in on you."

Big Ben: With the end of the season comes the beginning of the race for postseason honors, and Arizona senior forward Ben Davis has positioned himself as one of the favorites for Pacific 10 Conference player of the year. The 6-foot-8, 255-pound Davis has put up seven double-doubles in his last 10 games and on the season averages 14.5 points and a Pac-10 leading 9.4 rebounds a game. But when you take away nonconference play, those numbers soar.

When Davis' 12 conference performances are added up, his stats jump to 17.3 points and 11.2 rebounds a game. The closest UA player to those numbers is forward Corey Williams, who averages 12.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in the Pac-10.

Davis will receive stiff competition from Cal's Shareef Adbur-Rahim, the 6-10, 225-pound forward, who leads the conference with 22.1 points a game and is second to Davis with 8.7 rebounds. While Abdur-Rahim is the primary scoring threat for the Golden Bears, Davis is just one of six UA players who average in double figures.

"He has to do the stuff he does," Davis said of Abdur-Rahim. "Some nights I can get away with eight points and six rebounds."

Overshadowed at the beginning of the season by teammate Joseph Blair, Davis said he does not expect to win the award.

"If it happens, it happens. I'm not concentrating on it," Davis said. "It would definitely mean a lot because of the other players who have won the award (including Ed O'Bannon, Damon Stoudamire, Jason Kidd, Sean Elliott and Gary Payton). But I'm not expecting it. At the beginning of the year I wasn't even second-team all-Pac-10. I expect a lot more than anybody else."

Youngin's: The future is now, and Arizona coaches are keeping a close eye on star recruits Mike Bibby of Phoenix's Shadow Mountain High School and Stephen Jackson of Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va. Both were named McDonalds' All-Americans Sunday, and Bibby has his team one win away from the state championship game this weekend at America West Arena in Phoenix.

Wildcat assistant coach Jessie Evans will travel to Phoenix to observe Bibby this weekend. Despite the players' success, UA head coach Lute Olson was candid in assessing the areas they need to work on.

On the 6-2 point guard Bibby: "His biggest adjustment will be on the defensive end of the court. Shadow Mountain is a high-powered offensive team that will outscore you. They won a game 117-87 this year. It's nice to score 117 points, but to give up 87 means you'll have to tighten up at the defensive end."

On the 6-7 forward Jackson: "His biggest adjustment is that he will be playing quicker people. He tends to get a little fancy with his passes, and on defense he's a little bit of a gambler."

Lute Olson, Psychic: With three weekends left in the conference season, the UA head coach sized up the race for the coveted NCAA Tournament bids, as the Pac-10 is faced with the prospect of sending as few as three teams.

"Things will have to break a certain way for those teams in the top five (in the conference)," Olson said. "If we beat one another, it costs us spots. If teams in the Big Ten, Big East or the ACC beat one another, people say, 'well, that's supposed to happen.'"

With Cal, Washington, Washington State and Oregon all cluttered in the middle of the conference, Olson said the difference between the NCAA and the NIT could be the strength of the nonconference schedules. If that's the case, Olson gives the nod to Cal.

"That may hurt all of them," Olson said. "That's where Cal would have the edge with playing Cincinnati, at Minnesota and at San Francisco."

Olson said UW's 'good' loss at Michigan 60-59 and WSU's 77-75 defeat at Syracuse will help their causes, but the two teams played no one of note after that.

Minutia: Too much time on your hands? Try incorporating these stats into your daily conversations. UA is undefeated when they score 80 or more points. All five Arizona losses have been when they score 70-79 points... With 191 steals Reggie Geary needs just 10 more steals to become the all-time steal leader in Wildcat history, swiping the record from Cleveland Indian centerfielder Kenny Lofton... UA is 9-0 when forward Michael Dickerson scores 13 or more points.