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Wildcats spend holidays with tough schedule

While students take a month off, the UA women's basketball team begins one of the more arduous stretches in their 1999-2000 schedule.

Over the next four weeks, the team will play in two tournaments, face some familiar faces and begin their Pacific 10 Conference schedule.

The Wildcats (6-0) kick off the span by hosting the Insight.com Bowl Basketball Classic in McKale Center this weekend where the Wildcats will face Texas Southern and perhaps Indiana and Middle Tennessee, depending upon who wins.

"When you host your own tournament, it is a great opportunity to see some other teams from the other parts of the country," said UA head coach Joan Bonvicini. "With Texas Southern, Middle Tennessee and Indiana, we will get to see how basketball is being played in the midwest."

Associate head coach Denise Dove-Ianello said that Texas Southern is a squad that they should not take lightly.

"Texas Southern is a fairly young team, and when you talk about teams from Texas - you know that they are going to be scrappy; they are going to be athletic; they are going to definitely compete and challenge you," Dove-Ianello said. "We just have to be ready for that challenge."

Dove-Ianello said that aside from Texas Southern, the other possible games in the tournament could give them worthy looks.

"With Indiana being a Big Ten team, and teams from that conference are always physical and are always athletic and last year they had a pretty good year," Dove-Ianello said. "Between the games that we might play, we should get some different looks."

Following the tournament, Arizona has a game on Dec. 15 against Northern Illinois, where Dove-Ianello played collegiately and then heads to Kansas on Dec. 21 for what both coaches regard as a paramount match in their non-conference season.

"It is always neat to play your alma mater, but this time around it will be different because the head coach at Northern Illinois was the coach of one of our rivals, Wisconsin-Green Bay (when I was there)," Dove-Ianello said. "The sports information crew, the equipment people and the athletic director will all be here, so it will be good to see them and catch up on old times.

"Kansas is going to be a very tough place to play and they haven't lost any games yet either and are a very athletic team. They should be one of the most formidable opponents we'll see this month."

After playing Kansas, Arizona enters into another tournament, this one in senior forward Angela Lackey's hometown of Louisville, Ken. on Dec. 28-29.

"The tournament in Louisville will be a good homecoming for Angie Lackey, and that is one of the reasons the game is scheduled," Bonvicini said. "Playing Louisville in Louisville will be a good test, as they will be very prepared for us coming into that game."

Along with the Wildcats and Louisville, also entering into the Seelbach Cardinal Classic are Marshall and Western Illinois.

To ring in the Y2K, Arizona begins their conference play with California and Stanford at home on Jan. 6 and Jan. 8. Bonvicini said that despite how they fare in their other games, with the Pac-10 season comes a new, clean slate.

"Cal is a very improved team and should make for a good game, but we are particularly excited about seeing Stanford," Bonvicini said. "Stanford is an important game for us, and like I said at the beginning of the year, we have a chance of being really good this year. If everyone is able to understand and accept their roles on the team, and we play hard, putting it all together - we'll come out and do well."

The Wildcats enter the next month without a loss in their record and Bonvicini said that if a number of factors fall into place, when UA students return in January, they may be welcomed back to Tucson by an undefeated women's basketball team.

"There's a good chance (for us to remain undefeated) if we really come together as a team, improve in our rebounding and show better balance when making substitutions," Bonvicini said. "We want to play a lot of players, as well as get better production from some of our younger players. If we do all that, we be in a great position."