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Reserve guard John Ash doubtful for weekend road trip

The injury bug has hit the Wildcats once again, but this time it didn't bite a starter and the player won't be out for two months.

Junior guard John Ash strained his right knee during the Wildcats 90-73 victory against Oregon State on Saturday night, leaving the Wildcats bench even more depleted than it already was.

Ash is expected to be sidelined for the upcoming road trip at Washington and Washington State, but is slated to return to practice by Monday.

That is what the doctors are saying, but Ash thinks his progress could be quicker than that.

"(Sunday) it hurt really bad, I had trouble getting in and out of the car, but (Monday) it feels a lot better," he said. "So if I keep progressing like I am, I think I may be able to play quicker than next Monday.

"It's up to (Dr. Ed Orr) and he knows best."

The injury happened directly after Ash came into the game in the second half.

He was coming off a screen from junior center Loren Woods and trying to spin around the Oregon State defender, but his knee and body went in different directions.

"I just kind of bent the wrong way. It didn't hurt at the beginning, but as I kept playing it kept getting worse," Ash said. "So when I came out I had to come out because I couldn't even push on defense. I thought something was really wrong, it felt strange."

Ash's role of spelling freshman guard Jason Gardner for a few minutes in the game will now be given to freshman guard Gilbert Arenas, who played a few minutes at the point on Saturday night.

"What this means is that Gilbert will play a little more at the point to relieve Jason," UA head coach Lute Olson said. "Ricky (Anderson) and Luke (Walton) will cover our two wing spots."

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The Wildcats are 4-0 at home in Pacific 10 Conference play this season, but only one of those wins was in the bag with three minutes remaining - Saturday night's blowout of Oregon State.

While this doesn't come as a shock to Olson, it does, however, come as a relief.

"It was good to have one game at home where we didn't have to be sitting at the edge of our seats until the last couple-three minutes, although I felt that we played better against Oregon than we did against Oregon State," Olson said. "But again it seems like the guys have the competitiveness to pull it out one way or another."

The margin of victory in the Wildcats' win against the Beavers was 17, one less than the combined total of the three previous games.

Dan Rosen can be reached at Dan.Rosen@wildcat.arizona.edu