Ten years and one month ago something very unusual happened € the Arizona men's basketball team lost to Washington State.

Since a 65-63 overtime win Jan. 30, 1986, the Cougars have dropped 21 straight to the Wildcats, including a 96-78 defeat in Tucson Feb. 3 and a 114-111 double-overtime loss last year in Pullman. In that game, UA made up an eight-point deficit in the final 41 seconds of regulation to send the contest to overtime.

This time around, No. 11 Arizona (21-5 overall, 10-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will play a streaking WSU team looking for a postseason berth.

The Cougars (14-9, 6-8) are finally healthy and have won six of their last eight, although they would need to win their final four games to have a chance at the NCAA Tournament.

"If anything, it's just fuel for their fire," Reggie Geary said about the streak. "I'm sure their coach is telling them about it every two seconds."

"The biggest thing right now is they are the team everyone expected them to be at the beginning of season," UA head coach Lute Olson said. "Right now they are as good as any team in this league, if not € given how UCLA has struggled over the last three games € the best team in the league."

That the Cougars' charge happened at the same time 6-foot-9 inch, 240-pound forward Mark Hendrickson returned from a broken hand is not a coincidence. Hendrickson, a Pac-10 All-Conference, first-team performer last season is second on the team with 16.1 points and leads with 9.6 rebounds.

"He's probably the most difficult guy for anyone in the league to match up with because of his interior strength and ability to step out and make you guard him," Olson said. "He'll take you to the basket, and he's extremely patient when he gets it. Even when he's double-teamed it still seems like he ends up with good shots."

While Ben Davis limited Hendrickson to nine points and five rebounds in February, Olson will change the defensive set with the Wildcats on the road to protect Davis from foul trouble. Corey Williams will get the call on Hendrickson and will have support from Joe McLean.

"We really didn't stop him last time," Davis said about Hendrickson. "He got the shots he always gets, he just didn't make them."

Washington State also has firepower from the perimeter with guard Isaac Fontaine leading the Pac-10 with a 49.5 percent 3-point shooting average. Shamon Antrum is no slouch either, shooting 39.8 percent from beyond the arc, which is seventh in the conference. Olson said Geary would get the call on Fontaine, who is also fourth in the conference with 18.2 points a game.

The ability of Fontaine, Antrum and point guard Dominic Ellison to penetrate worries Olson, whose team has had problems in the past defending teams that penetrate well.

"All three perimeter guys can really penetrate well," Olson said. "It seems like when we face a team that has two guys who can penetrate, we do OK, but when they have three, we've had some problems."