Can somebody help me out with something?

How is it two magazines covering the same sport can have such differing opinions on the same subject?

Case in point: the Arizona baseball team.

This week, the No. 22 Wildcats entered the national rankings for the first time in three years. Well, that is to say they did so in the Collegiate Baseball poll. In the Baseball Weekly poll, the 9-2 Wildcats are No. 132.

That is not a typo.

UA is the one hundred and thirty-second-ranked team in the country.

I believe that ranking puts them somewhere between Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo (No. 128) and Michael Bolton's slow pitch softball team. I've played on little league teams that got more respect than that.

Granted, after a season that saw them go 20-35, anyone would be hesitant to jump on the Wildcats' bandwagon. But that wagon started to pick up speed after a series that saw UA take two games from No. 21 Texas A&M.

And the simple fact is this: The Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division features the best college baseball in the country € bar none.

Even Collegiate Baseball and Baseball Weekly can agree on that fact. In Baseball Weekly, four of the Six-Pac teams - No. 2 Stanford, No. 6 California, No. 9 UCLA and No. 10 Arizona State - are in the top 10. Southern Cal is ranked 13th.

Collegiate Baseball's Top 25 features all six teams from No. 2 Stanford down to Arizona. In between, Cal is No. 5, ASU is sixth, the Trojans are 16th and the Bruins are 19th.

The Trojans and the Cardinal were each in the College World Series last year, and the Trojans were last year's national runners-up. Between all the Six-Pac teams there are 21 national championships, including Arizona's three in 1976, 1980 and 1986.

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While we're on the subject of respect, it's time that somebody gave some to Arizona forward Joe McLean.

Lost in the frenzy of Miles Simon's miraculous shot was McLean's outstanding defense. With Ben Davis in foul trouble, McLean drew the assignment of guarding Cincinnati's Danny Fortson. McLean gave up three inches and about 40 pounds to the all-everything Fortson, but still limited him to just one field goal and five rebounds. Not to mention the two charges that McLean took to get Fortson into foul trouble.

After the game, McLean was scratched, black and blue, and looked like he'd just spent two hours wrestling a bear (a Bearcat perhaps).

"He's the strongest player I've ever played against," McLean said.

Perhaps Fortson would say the same about McLean.

Probably not.

Basketball is all about spectacular plays, but let's face it kids, defense wins championships.

Just ask Paul Westphal whose Phoenix Suns teams were stacked with some of the best offensive players in the NBA but still couldn't win a championship.

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Now for the subject of who gets too much respect.

The Big East.

Enough said.

Craig Degel is a journalism sophomore and a sports reporter for the Arizona Daily Wildcat.