| | TUCSON, Ariz. -- Arizona already defeated Stanford once this season. Doing it again may be more of a challenge.
This time, a possible NCAA West No. 1 seed and the Pac-10 title
are at stake.
|  | | Jason Gardner is averaging 36.7 minutes per game. |
The Wildcats (24-6, 13-3; No. 6 ESPN/USA Today, No. 9 AP) pulled off a 68-65 victory over the Cardinal during the second Pac-10 game of the season despite
starting forward Richard Jefferson breaking a bone in his right
foot in the opening minutes.
On Thursday at home, Arizona will be without 7-foot-1 center
Loren Woods because of a back injury. Against the several big guys
Stanford (25-2, 14-2) brings off the bench, that is not good news
for a team with only seven available scholarship players.
"One of our key things is to stay out of foul trouble without
surrendering baskets," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "Stanford
does a great job of pounding the ball inside and pounding the ball
to the basket. They also have outstanding shooters so you can't
drop in and keep the ball out of there."
Arizona hopes to get good perimeter shooting from guards Jason
Gardner and Gilbert Arenas, while at the same time trailing to
neutralize Mark Madsen's effectiveness inside.
If Arizona does not have a high shooting percentage, Stanford (No. 3 ESPN/USA Today, No. 2 AP) could claim its second consecutive Pac-10 title while on Arizona's
home court.
"Stanford is going to come in thinking they have something to
prove," Arizona's Justin Wessel said. "If they can come in and
win in McKale, on our court, in front of our crowd, they'll think
they have been above us for the last few years. It's been us and
UCLA for so long."
The Cardinal, with four starters scoring in double figures, is
the team to beat. Both teams lost golden opportunities last week to
win the title outright. Stanford fell 94-93 to UCLA at home in
overtime, while Arizona lost to Oregon and Oregon State.
An Arizona win over Stanford would bring a tie to the standings
with one regular season game remaining. The winner may not only get
a Pac-10 championship trophy, but a possible No. 1 seed in the NCAA
tournament.
"I don't know what barring (this game) will have," Stanford's
Mike Montgomery said. "The conference champion in the past has
some times not gotten the best seed or the (preferred) location
seed. We are not worried about that. We are going to go where ever
they send us."
An Arizona win would mean a sweep of Stanford, and extra
motivation for the NCAA selection committee to keep the Wildcats in
the West.
But Arizona must limit its turnovers and take high percentage
shots. Stanford leads the nation in field goal defense, allowing
its opponents to shoot just 34.8 percent and score 58.6 points per
game.
"I think their defense is great, you can't really penetrate
because they are so big," Gardner said. "Their pressure is
different because they are so big. We are at McKale, however, we're
comfortable here."
A Cardinal win would give Arizona its first
three-game losing steak since the 1991-92 season when it lost the
final two games of the regular season against USC and UCLA, and
then lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to East
Tennessee State. | |
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