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Wright, Woods prepare for season by representing USA in overseas competitions


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Wildcat File Photo
Arizona Summer Wildcat

Sophomore forward Michael Wright pulls down a rebound and looks for an outlet against the University of Texas last season. Wright and junior center Loren Woods played on summer teams during the offseason in order to prepare for the upcoming season.


By Bryan Rosenbaum
Arizona Daily Wildcat, August 23, 1999

Two UA men's basketball front court players toured Europe this summer and played in competitive games, gaining valuable experience for the upcoming season.

Junior center Loren Woods, who had to sit out last season because of NCAA rules after transferring from Wake Forest, finished playing last week on an NIT all-star team consisting of the top players competing in November's preseason NIT.

Sophomore forward Michael Wright, the 1999 Pacific-10 Conference Freshman of the Year, represented the United States in the 1999 FIBA Men's Junior World Championships in Portugal in July. The USA went 7-1, losing to Spain 84-77 in the gold-medal game.

Wright led the team with 11.5 points per game over eight contests and was second in rebounding, pulling down 4.9 per game. In a preliminary round game against Greece, Wright scored 28 points.

"Michael was clearly one of the top players on the team," UA associate head coach Jim Rosborough said. "Over the course of his college career he should get invited to tryouts for the national teams. He did a great job, had fun and really liked it."

Wright was coached by ASU head coach Rob Evans. The tournament was open to players 19-years-old or younger (born on, or after July 1, 1980).

"I think outside of our coaching staff, Michael surprised a lot of people with his progress and performances last season," head coach Lute Olson said. "This season, we are going to call on him to give us even more scoring to make up for the loss of Jason (Terry) and A.J. (Bramlett)."

The UA coaching staff hopes that both players' experiences will have helped them prepare for the upcoming season. For Woods, who was only able to practice last season, it was his first game experience in almost a year and a half.

"The real advantage is that he gets to play in some game-time situations," Rosborough said. "This will help Loren because a lot of kids don't get this chance."

Olson will look to Woods to be one of the team's leaders since this is his fourth year of college basketball.

"Loren had a tremendous impact on the program last season just by practicing," he said. "Having him as a redshirt last year was valuable because with Gene (Edgerson) redshirting, Loren will have to pick up a major portion of the leadership role."

The players went through physicals on Saturday and are expected to begin pick-up games this week.

"All the kids have worked hard this summer and finished up last semester with good academics, which we're proud of," Rosborough said. "Everybody's optimistic about the future and eager to get back and get started."

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