By Arlie Rahn
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 15, 1997

No. 7 Wildcats at full strength

Arizona's play in Saturday's 92-84 win showed that Simon might just be the final piece needed for the Wildcats to make a legitimate run at the NCAA Championship.

While Simon displayed that his scoring touch had not faltered by recording 18 points in 25 minutes, the real bonus was that he did it without taking away from key Arizona performers like Bennett Davison and Michael Dickerson.

"With Miles at one wing, I think Michael will only get better," UA head coach Lute Olson said. "He might not get the number of shots that he's had in the past, but his looks are going to be better because of Miles' presence, and his ability to find the open man."

Davison finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds, for his second double-double of the year, and Dickerson set a new career-high by scoring 32 points.

"Miles isn't selfish, he gives the ball up. And it's not like playing with him is something new, he's been practicing with us every day since October 15," Dickerson said. "The only difference I see is when you get two fouls you come out quicker."

"I don't think that anything changes with me in the lineup," Simon said. "People are still going to do what they have been doing in the past. It's not like I'm going to shoot more than anybody else."

The addition of Simon also gives the Wildcats another guard in their rotation. He adds a more flexibility on defense, and helps out the fatigue factor common at the end of a game.

"Having Miles allows me to be more aggressive," UA sophomore guard Jason Terry said.

"Miles, defensively, is strong enough to defend a (power forward)," Olson said. "There might be times, especially late in the game when we go with four perimeter players because Miles can defend the bigger guy."

Even if Simon never scored a point, his presence would still be a bonus to the team. His on-court leadership is invaluable to the youthful Wildcats.

"It's almost like having a senior out there," Terry said. "When I see Miles coming into the game, especially late, it's almost like a sigh of relief."

Throughout the season Arizona has shown the ability to dominate good teams for long stretches of the game, but have been susceptible to late runs by their opponents. The California and Stanford games two weeks ago were a prime example of this. In both games the Wildcats built up a double-digit lead, only to see it dissipate to a one-point victory margin.

The Wildcats were again in that situation against the Sun Devils on Saturday. After ASU had opened the second half on an 18-12 run, the Wildcats found themselves up by only five. Instead of allowing the opposition to creep closer as in the previous games, Arizona had the play of Simon to discourage the comeback attempt by the Sun Devils. In a four-minute span, Simon added two assists and five points, including a back-breaking three-pointer to put the Wildcats back up by 10.

"Again we had that sixteen-point lead, but as they started to come back, we didn't let them come all the way back like we did in the Stanford-Cal games," Terry said. "And I think a lot of that was because Miles was out there and he showed the leadership that we were lacking."

As for Simon's own physical shape, he feels like he didn't miss a single game.

"Before the game, I thought I would have gotten winded within the first couple minutes out there," Simon said. "But overall, I felt my stamina was pretty good and I was never really tired."

Michael Dickerson and Mike Bibby have been named to the list of the 50 finalists for the 1996-97 John R. Wooden Award.

They are now eligible for both the Collegiate Player of the Year honor as well as the 10-man All-American team.

Dickerson is the Pac-10 leader in scoring with 23.6 points per game, while Bibby is third in the Pac-10 with 6.3 assists per game.

Bibby is one of only two freshmen, Villanova's Tim Thomas being the other, to make the list of candidates.