Young Wildcats Simply Keep Getting Better : Arizona: Team will try to make UCLA its 14th consecutive Pac-10 victim today.

After getting off to a poor start this season, Arizona’s basketball team has become one of the best teams in the West.

The Wildcats reached the finals of the Pac-10 tournament for the third consecutive season, defeating Stanford, 85-61, in a semifinal game Saturday.

Arizona (23-6) will play UCLA in the championship game today at 1 p.m. PST. UCLA handed Arizona its last Pac-10 defeat, 73-67 on Jan 13. But the Wildcats defeated the Bruins, 83-74, last month.

“The only thing that scares me about Arizona is that they beat their last six opponents by 20 to 25 points,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said. “They’re really playing well. I think they’re playing top 10 basketball.”

Why are the No. 15 Wildcats, who have won 13 consecutive conference games, all by by 20 or more points, playing so well?

“We’re very young,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said. “You don’t take a young team and turn a switch and say, ‘Play well.’ If I had to point at things, I’d say it’s good competition in practice and a desire on this team to be as good as they can be. I don’t think they’ve ever been satisfied at any time of the year. Good teams are going to improve.”

And the Wildcats are a good team.

Arizona had five players in double figures against Stanford as forward Jud Buechler had a team-high 18 and center Ed Stokes got 15 points and nine rebounds. Guards Matt Othick (12 points, six assists) and Matt Muehlebach (11 points, six assists) also played well along with reserve forward Brian Womack (11 points).

The Cardinal shot 33%. Arizona’s defense has held its opponents to 39% accuracy from the field.

“Arizona’s just too good,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “For us to compete with Arizona we would have had to play our best basketball game. We’re probably not 24 points worse than Arizona, but they’re clearly the best team in the league right now.”