Simon shines in 81-62 win

Both players are nominated for the college basketball play of the year in tonight's ESPN award show, Simon for his 70 foot buzzer-beater against Cincinnati in last year's 7-UP Shootout, Honeycutt for his under the arm desperation three-pointer with his back to basket.

Simon scored a career-high 30 points and recorded 10 assists in Arizona's 81-62 romp over Tulane, while limiting preseason All-American Honeycutt to only 12 points.

"Miles had a lights-out game," UA head coach Lute Olson said. "He got 30 points, defended Honeycutt and gave us great court leadership. He's giving up four inches and nearly 50 pounds to Honeycutt, so we made sure he got a lot of help."

Honeycutt, a 6-foot-9, 245 pound senior forward, didn't score until seven minutes into the game and never established himself inside.

Double-teamed, even triple-teamed at times, Honeycutt was forced to create for his team with passes.

"They did a great job of team defense," Honeycutt said. "If Simon wasn't on me, Edgerson and Bennett were in my face."

Honeycutt had eight assists and seven turnovers in 37 minutes.

"It was frustrating, they have a lot of team speed," he said.

"He's big, but that was fine," Simon said. "I just used my quickness."

Honeycutt played almost the entire second half on the perimeter.

"He wants to be showtime all the time. He's always trying to make the hard passes and off-balance shots," Simon said.

When Arizona wasn't crashing on Honeycutt, they were full-court pressing.

"We really carried it over from the ASU game. We can all run, so we have to use it," sophomore center Donnell Harris said. "Their big guys got tired and me and A.J. were still going."

Arizona opened the wound to as much as 20 points, 70-50, with six minutes to play and never let the Green Wave get closer than 13.

The ESPY Awards will be broadcast live tonight from Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Harris had Simon's back.

"Miles was the only one worthy today, no doubt," he said.