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Pastner's buzzer beater a first

By Dan Rosen
Arizona Daily Wildcat,
February 22, 2000
Talk about this story

Have you ever hit a buzzer beater in a game before?

Never hit a buzzer beater, and I can always say I did. I am going to tell my kids and grandkids that I hit a shot at the buzzer to beat UCLA, but I just won't tell them what the score was.

How is Loren (Woods) doing?

Well, Loren right now has a hurt back, and it is a concern for us because Loren changes a lot of offensive plays in there, but on the other hand Justin Wessel stepped in and did an unbelievable job. He was just awesome. The main thing with Loren is that during the week we are going to determine how his back is and hopefully he can play against Arizona State.

This game against ASU is a really big game now because they are playing well?

It is a huge, huge game. We have to win to keep atop the Pac-10 standings, and it is a desperate game for them because they need to win to keep alive hope of an NCAA Tourney bid. They are in a desperate measure and they will play with a sense of urgency. The rivalry is also unbelievable, and Eddie House is going to want to bust us this game because the last time we played them he didn't have a good game. Plus, they had that fight this weekend, so they are going to come in and it is going to be a pretty heated game.

Did you see the fight?

I saw it on tape, and it was pretty interesting. Obviously there was some bad blood going on even before the game started.

If you take care of Arizona State on Saturday, you have one of the toughest games of the season left up in Oregon.

People don't realize that is one of the hardest places to play. Not only Oregon, but what about Oregon State? They beat us last year, and even the year before that we needed a buzzer beater from Miles (Simon) to beat them. The crowd is great, and the Oregon trip is very hard to win. Oregon is going to be in a situation where they are going to have to beat us to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament. So it is going to be a really tough weekend after Arizona State.

Do you think on Saturday, Richard (Jefferson) is going to surprise people and dress for the game? Not play, but just dress.

There is an opportunity to see that, and I think, as a team, we would love to see him do that just because it would get the guys pumped. But we are hoping that he is ready to warm-up and play in the game next weekend.

Do you think when he comes back, that there is going to be a better sixth man in the country than Luke Walton?

No, but it will take time for Richard to get back in the starting lineup. Luke has done an incredible job, and if he did come off the bench, which would be okay because he is such a team guy, there wouldn't be a better sixth man because he is already one of the best at his position in the Pac-10 right now. He has done an incredible job, and he could probably be the MVP of our team right now just for the way he has handled this.

How comfortable is it to know that you control your own destiny right now?

You said it right there, that is all you want to control your own destiny. We have five games in the Pac-10 left, we win five in a row, we get a number one seed and we win the Pac-10.

If today was Selection Sunday, who would be your No. 1s?

My number one seeds would be Cincinnati, Duke, us and Stanford. I would have to give us the edge in the West because we beat them head-to-head. Yes, they only have one loss and we have four, but we beat them head-to-head. Cincinnati is obviously very good, and they deserve a number one seed. They would be in the Midwest, Duke would be in the East and Stanford would be in the South.

Did you see what Stanford did to Cal?

Yes, and the only chance they have to lose in the regular season would be against us. But it is a huge feeling to know they have to come here. We don't want to look ahead, but that game is going to be so hyped. It is going to be such a big game if we both keep winning.


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