By Patrick Klein
Arizona Daily Wildcat
In picking through the rubble after a 100-54 drubbing of the Mexico National Team, Arizona head coach Lute Olson was able to find a few areas of improvement for his team as it heads into the season opener against Long Beach State tomorrow in the first round of the preseason National Invitation Tournament.
On defense, Olson said he felt his team loosened up after building a 46-27 halftime lead.
"Overall, our defense was solid, but once the lead got up a ways, I felt we eased up a bit on the inside, which we have to make sure does not happen."
Of most concern to Olson was the ability of Mexico's inside players to free themselves for passes, despite the ability of Arizona's guards to contain Mexico's perimeter players.
"When we had their perimeter players in trouble, a lot of times their post players broke out and caught the ball," Olson said. "That cannot happen because you've got three guys working very hard and suddenly the other team gets off the hook with a pass like that."
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More news on the recruiting front: Arizona signed three more high school seniors over the weekend, bringing the total to five.
Quynn Tebbs, Justin Wessel and Bennett Davison all committed to Arizona. Of the six who verbally committed to the Wildcats, only Stephen Jackson of Oak Hill Academy in Virginia remains unsigned. He is awaiting the results of his Scholastic Aptitude Test.
Davison, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward from West Valley Junior College in Saratoga, Calif., is expected to bring experience to a frontcourt that will lose seniors Ben Davis and Joseph Blair after this year.
"The fact that he's from a JC is an important ingredient," Olson said of Davison, a Street & Smith first-team Junior College All-American. "He will be a mature frontline player. Endline-to-endline, he'll be as fast as anyone in the program, including guys like Michael Dickerson and Reggie Geary. He's a tremendous athlete."
Tebbs is a 6-3, 185-pound guard from Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah. He is currently on a Mormon mission in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and will return this summer. Olson said Tebbs asked to redshirt his freshman year to get experience before joining the team.
Wessel, a 6-9 guard/forward from Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will also redshirt.
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Ten assists. Seven turnovers.
After his performance against Mexico, it was not hard for freshman point guard Jason Terry to figure out which of the above numbers had to go down.
"If I'm going to get more playing time, I've got to get my turnovers down," Terry said. "I feel I'm capable of stepping in, and with time I'll get my turnovers down. More experience, that's all I need."
Olson said he felt Terry made up for his offensive lapses at the defensive end with his pressure, and that the freshman corrected his mistakes at halftime.
"In the first half he made six of his seven turnovers, but in the second half he broke down defenses and made the good pass," Olson said. "He learns quickly and had a solid performance."
Another Arizona guard said he saw a bit of himself in Terry's performance, his first for the Wildcats in a non-scrimmage atmosphere.
"He played good out there," senior point guard Reggie Geary said of his understudy. "Sometimes he tried to make the incredible pass, but you do that. I definitely see a lot of myself in him."