College Basketball / Robyn Norwood : Arizona, Pacific 10 Still Seeking Some Respect

Pity poor Arizona. Last year’s 35-3 season, replete with a No. 1 ranking and Final Four appearance, should have proven that the program is one of the nation’s best.

Now, the Wildcats are back at the top of the polls, becoming the fourth team this season to be ranked No. 1.

Respect? Not so fast.

Clemson’s Cliff Ellis, not wanting to put his name to any comments, had this to say about Arizona: “A person in the coaching profession whom I will not name was saying the other day that Arizona might be in the upper division (of the Atlantic Coast Conference), but you don’t know how many wins and losses they might have. Duke won all its games out of league and beat some good people, but they’re only 4-4 in conference.”

Duke, of course, was ranked No. 1 in the preseason, but dropped after losing consecutive ACC games to North Carolina, Wake Forest and N.C. State. The Blue Devils are 5-4 in the ACC.

And while Arizona is being maligned, the Wildcats’ star, Sean Elliott, is fending off criticism of his ability.

Responding to those who contend that he has some tough competition for player of the year, Elliott at least distinguished himself with a comment.

“If those guys are better than me, then why aren’t coaches comparing me to them?” Elliott asked reporters recently. “It’s like that (car) commercial where the guy is saying, ‘It’s just like a BMW.’ . . . Frankly, it’s getting me a little (aggravated).”

But the potshots go with being No. 1.

Arizona, whose only losses are to North Carolina and Stanford, can only hope to hang onto the ranking longer than Illinois and Oklahoma did.

It will become apparent soon. The Wildcats meet the fifth-ranked Sooners Sunday.

One of the more debated topics of the season is the quality of the Pacific 10. One camp contends that the league has emerged, and is moving toward the peak of a cycle. Others say that these teams wouldn’t do so well in other leagues.

Marty Blake, the National Basketball Assn.’s director of scouting, as always, has an opinion.

“I think it’s a young league, and while it doesn’t compare with the Big 10, the Atlantic Coast Conference or the Big East right now, these things can change overnight.”

Blake predicts three first-round draft choices for the Pac-10 in Elliott, Stanford’s Todd Lichti and UCLA’s Pooh Richardson.

Elliott and Lichti are continuing to close in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career scoring record, which he set when he was Lew Alcindor.

Elliott, coming off a season-low 10-point performance against Oregon, is 70 points shy of Alcindor’s conference record of 2,325 points. Lichti is 176 behind Alcindor.

Oregon State Coach Ralph Miller’s farewell tour isn’t quite in the realm of the one given to Abdul-Jabbar.

After all, Miller has received such gifts as a crystal clock and a sculpture, but as yet, no motorcycle.

For historical perspective, however, Miller’s tour is tough to beat.

On the occasion of his final game at Cal’s Harmon Arena, Miller, 69, recalled his first visit to the cramped, dark facility, which was built in 1933.

“This was a palace then,” he said, recalling his 1937 visit. “I’ve changed my mind since.”

As he recalled his visit 52 years ago, Miller surveyed a youngish group of reporters and added, “None of you probably were alive then.”

Indeed, none of them had been.

Then again, neither was Cal Coach Lou Campanelli, who came into this world on Aug. 10, 1938.

After Utah State Coach Kohn Smith made his well-publicized comments about his perceptions of Nevada Las Vegas players’ life styles, the Las Vegas Review-Journal dutifully checked the validity of Smith’s charge that Stacey Augmon stepped into a car Smith said he himself “couldn’t afford.”

That would be a 1979 Oldsmobile with a new paint job, according to the Review-Journal’s search of vehicle registration records.

The nicest vehicle owned by a player was a 1985 Nissan 300 SX owned by David Butler, and purchased by his father.

And the least ostentatious mode of transportation? George Ackles, who is 6-foot-10, rides a moped.

Add Las Vegas: Coach Jerry Tarkanian donned glasses in a game for the first time Monday night in a runaway victory over UC Santa Barbara, telling reporters he hoped the specs would help officials to perceive him as “more scholarly.”

Word was that as long as the Rebels are winning with them, the glasses would stay. UNLV promptly lost to Cal State Fullerton in overtime Thursday night.

The fate of his glasses will be learned Sunday when the Rebels play North Carolina State.