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Air mileage aplenty with UA women's schedule

Glancing at the UA women's basketball team's schedule this season, one may become envious of all the air mileage they're going to rack up during the next four months.

From Hawaii to Kentucky to Kansas to the Pacific Northwest, Arizona's schedule features teams from all over the nation that will offer them assorted challenges on offense and defense.

"We face some very different opponents that will give us varied looks," UA head coach Joan Bonvicini said. "If we go into each one focused, we should fare very well this season, through every team we play."

Arizona opens their air mileage accounts tomorrow, as they'll be crossing the Pacific Ocean to face their first regular season opponents.

This weekend, the Wildcats are playing in the Hawaiian Regent Classic in Honolulu where they will first be facing Oklahoma on Friday, Tennessee Tech on Saturday and Hawaii on Sunday.

"Oklahoma is a really good team, as they are very athletic and similar to ourselves," Bonvicini said. "A year ago they were 15-14 but they return all five starters. They will try to press and run like we do."

Bonvicini said that she is very impressed with the prospects of Tennessee Tech and Hawaii as well.

"They have an excellent coaching staff. A year ago they went to the NCAA tournament and will provide us with a completely different look than Oklahoma," she said. "Hawaii is well coached and are a good team and are very, very tough when you play them at home."

In early exhibition matches this year, the Wildcats defeated SBC Prerov Czech Republic 88-52, but then were downed by the New Zealand National Team 70-62.

Following their trip to Hawaii, the Wildcats have a homestand against New Mexico, UC Santa Barbara and Colorado State before hosting the Insight.com Bowl Basketball Classic.

Over that span, the toughest opponent for the Wildcats will be the No. 14 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos and a much-improved New Mexico team.

"New Mexico has a whole new coaching staff since we played them last, and is very, very smart and well disciplined and are going to be a good team," she said. "Santa Barbara on the other hand is a team that had a very good season last year and we were the only team to beat them at their place. They are returning five starters, are very experienced -Ø they're good."

The Gauchos are led by junior guard Erin Buescher who averaged 19.9 points per game and 9.1 rebounds per game over the 1998-99 season.

Indiana, Middle Tennessee State and Texas Southern come to Tucson when Arizona hosts the Insight.com tournament.

Bonvicini said she excited about hosting the teams at McKale Center.

"Having our home crowd on our floor is absolutely what we want," she said. "We'll be playing some good teams in Middle Tennessee and Indiana. Indiana, from the Big 10 is a squad that we can't look past, that have much talent and should pose a threat."

The real test for the Wildcats comes when the Pacific 10 Conference season begins. The Wildcats will face Oregon and UCLA twice, both of which are featured in the top-25.

Oregon is currently No. 16 and UCLA is No. 5 in the preseason rankings.

UCLA is predicted to finish first in the Pac-10 and is expected to make a run at the NCAA Championship in March.

"UCLA is returning everybody, including all of their starters from a year ago. They are a very experienced team and ranked in almost every poll in the top five," Bonvicini said.

The Bruins are lead by 6-foot-3 senior forward Maylana Martin, who is a preseason Naismith Player of the Year award candidate.

Last season, Martin averaged 18.2 ppg and 9.4 rpg en route to being named the 1999 Pac-10 Player of the Year and a member of the 1999 Kodak All-American Team.

"Maylana is a very good player," Bonvicini said. "She is a tough opponent."

Whether they're facing UCLA or Texas Southern, Bonvicini said that she plans on taking every opponent seriously and doesn't want to look past any one game.

"Our thing is to just take each game as it comes, and go through each team, each challenge to understand what each one means and then go from there," Bonvicini said. "The most important thing is to be really simple on your goals and just go out and win the first half and then win the second half."

Senior guard Felecity Willis said at the team's media day that she's excited about each game, but does not differentiate between different oppenents.

"We just have to go into every night with a game mentality and we should do well," Willis said. "No matter which game, if we come out and play Arizona basketball, we can run with any one of the teams we're playing."