COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENT : WEST REGIONAL AT SALT LAKE CITY : Arizona Goes Eye-to-Eye With BYU

Brigham Young’s Shawn Bradley is the kind of player you have to look up to--and up and up.

Virginia probably didn’t respect the 7-foot-6 Bradley enough in the first round of the NCAA West Regional at the University of Utah’s Jon Huntsman Center on Thursday.

The Cavaliers tried to play right through the freshman center and regretted it. He blocked an NCAA-tournament record 10 shots and BYU won, 61-48.

Arizona Coach Lute Olson, whose Pacific 10 Conference champions will play BYU in the second round today at 11:20 a.m. (PST), knows the devastating effect Bradley can have on opponents. Olson recruited him.

Olson, whose Wildcats (27-6) eliminated St. Francis, 93-80, in Thursday’s first round, said he saw plenty of Bradley when he was playing in high school.

“I was on the Shawn Bradley tour,” he said wryly.

Bradley’s ability to block or alter shots probably will be Arizona’s biggest problem, Olson said, but he doesn’t intend to change what the Wildcats have been doing best all season: taking what the opposition gives up.

BYU (21-12) and Bradley may not give up much, as Virginia can testify, but Olson pointed out that the Cavaliers “did not go right at Bradley with the people we have.”

He added, “I don’t think our big guys will have nightmares or anything tonight.”

Olson said that, although he doesn’t plan to ask his guards to drive on Bradley, he doesn’t think such front-line players as Chris Mills, Brian Williams or Sean Rooks will be reluctant to go inside.

“Our guys see some pretty good shot-blockers in practice,” Olson said.

None, perhaps, as good as Bradley, who had a season-high of 14 blocks against Eastern Kentucky.

His season total of 175 leads the nation, and he already has broken the NCAA record of 169 set by Georgetown’s Alonzo Mourning. His NCAA tournament record of 10 blocks broke David Robinson’s mark of nine.

Bradley, a soft-spoken, unassuming sort, said “it was pretty exciting to break (Robinson’s) record. It was a little bit of an extra reward for hard work in the tournament.”

He expects a tough game against Arizona, he said, because of its imposing front line. Brigham Young, he said, hasn’t seen “that much height all at once.”