Seniors primed for Saturday's Pac-10 finale

First, with a win, the Wildcats will finish second in the Pacific 10 Conference and almost assure themselves of a couple of home games to start off next week's NCAA Tournament.

Second, the team is trying to treat its final weekend of conference play as tournament games to prepare for the increased intensity of March Madness.

But third, and most important, six UA seniors will play their last regular season home game at McKale Center when tomorrow's "Senior Day" game tips off at 2 p.m.

"The seniors ain't going to go out in their last regular season game losing to anyone," UA assistant coach Denise Dove said.

"They want to take their Senior Day out on UCLA just like Stanford did to us," she said about UA's 108-90 loss at Maples Pavilion Saturday. "They don't back down to anyone."

And Dove should know. Back in 1993, Dove, who is also Arizona's recruiting coordinator, convinced Adia Barnes, Mikko Giordano, DeAngela Minter, Marte Alexander and Fatima Imara to come to a Wildcat program that had gone 82-145 since joining the Pac-10 in the 1986-87 season.

Cha-Ron Walker, Arizona's sixth senior who will not play against UCLA due to her academics, transferred to Arizona in 1995 from Saddleback Community College.

Asked if she knew then that the quintet would turn the program around, Dove's reply was immediate and resounding.

"I definitely did," she said. "They all came from winning (high school) programs. They're fighters and they are going to fight until the finish."

UA head coach Joan Bonvicini, a 1998 Naismith Coach of the Year nominee, said subsequent Arizona teams will be measured up against the current group.

"This senior class is really the one that set the standard for what is expected from Arizona women's basketball in the future," Bonvicini said.

Asked how far the Wildcats might go this year, Barnes was optimistic.

"If we host, we really have a chance to go far," she said. "We want to go to the Final Four."