Fans get double dose of Red and Blue

By Arlie Rahn
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 4, 1996

Charles C. LaBenz
Arizona Daily Wildcat

Red team point guard Mike Bibby (10) steals a pass from Blue team center Bennett Davison (21) during the men's basketball Red-Blue Scrimmage Friday.

[]

Two years ago a highly touted freshman named Miles Simon stole the show in the annual Red-Blue men's basketball scrimmage. This year it was the same story, just a different freshman.

An enthusiastic McKale Center crowd of 6,543 watched freshman phenom Mike Bibby rack up 25 points, 12 assists and six rebounds, leading the Red team to a 103-93 victory.

"I think we played pretty good, but got kind of fatigued towards the end," Bibby said. "The Blue team was saying all week that they were going to win and we had to show them different and get (assistant) Coach (Jessie) Evans a win."

Bibby, however, wasn't the only story for the Red team. Sophomore Donnell Harris showed that the Arizona big men were not to be overlooked, adding 25 points and 24 rebounds. Harris, who averaged 1.1 points in only 4.1 minutes a game last season, tried to show stability at the center position that lost 41 points in production from last season.

"If you look at us, none of us have really played in the last year. Only me and A.J. (Bramlett) are coming back," Harris said. "I just told myself I have to do what I did in high school - rebound, score and block shots. That was my game plan."

The game began with the Blue team dictating the tempo, taking an early 19-10 lead. It was then that Bibby took the game into his hands, outscoring the Blue team 7-2 in 2 minutes, 38 seconds to pull the game to 21-18.

While Blue team member Miles Simon added a three-pointer to push the score to 24-18, the combination of Harris and Bibby were too potent for the Red. In the last 10 minutes, the two added 17 points and put the Red team ahead 58-47. The highlight came when Bibby ended the half on a three-pointer from 23 feet out with sophomore Jason Terry draped over him.

"We started off strong, but didn't finish too well," Simon said. "You have to give credit to the (Red) team, they played hard throughout and got a lot of easy buckets in transition."

While the game ended with the Blue outscoring the Red 46-45, the first-half lead put up by Bibby and company proved too much for the Red team.

"This was a lot of fun," Evans said. "I thought we did some things well, especially in the first half. We were able to control the transition baskets and then take the ball and do some things in our transition."

Despite the scrimmage's positive points, UA head coach Lute Olson said he still feels there is a good deal of improvement needed before Arizona's first game against North Carolina on Nov. 22. One area of immediate concern was the combined 44 turnovers.

"Turnovers were excessive because we were trying to make the difficult plays," Olson said. "You learn in this game to make the easy play and save the difficult ones for the summer pickup games."

The top returners, Simon and Michael Dickerson, scored 26 and 20 points, respectively. The two new big men, Bennett Davison and Eugene Edgerson, combined for 40 points and 19 rebounds.

"I think our big men showed some good things," Olson said. "Bennett showed some really good athleticism and Eugene showed his consistency."

One other positive for the Wildcats was the combined play of Terry and Bibby. The two showed the ability to lead the team and become a force at the point guard spot.

"Mike played very well, but I thought (Terry) did some good things as well," Evans said. "The thing I'm excited about is when we put those two together, we have a pretty effective punch."


(NEXT_STORY)

(NEXT_STORY)