PACIFIC 10 PREVIEW : Arizona Picked Above Others, but There Are Challengers

Arizona Coach Lute Olson has built a dynasty in the desert, winning five Pacific 10 Conference basketball championships in the last seven years.

The Wildcats, who finished third in the conference behind UCLA and USC last season, are favored to win the title again this season.

“We’ve been in that role for a lot of years and we don’t back off of that,” Olson said. “Our guys think we can win it. They know it’s going to be a battle, but they’d be disappointed if they weren’t cast in that role.”

Forward Chris Mills, a 6-foot-6 senior who averaged 16.3 points and 7.9 rebounds while leading the Wildcats to their eighth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance last season, leads Arizona.

Oregon State, which has four starters returning, including 6-11 senior center Scott Haskin and 6-7 senior forward Chad Scott, and Cal, led by highly touted freshman guard Jason Kidd, could push Arizona.

“I believe Oregon State’s going to win the league,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “They’ve got the best big man in the league in Haskin.”

The conference has one new coach.

Jerry Green, an assistant to Roy Williams at Kansas, replaced Don Monson at Oregon after the Ducks finished last. It was the first coaching change in the Pac-10 since Arizona State hired Bill Frieder in 1989.

Here’s a team-by-team look at the Pac-10, excluding USC and UCLA, which are previewed elsewhere in today’s sports section:

ARIZONA

1991-92 record: 24-7, 13-5.

Conference finish: Third.

Mills, a candidate for the John Wooden award, has been inconsistent since transferring from Kentucky, vanishing in key games.

Center Ed Stokes, a 7-foot senior who averaged 7.6 points and 7.1 rebounds last season, and 6-7 sophomore forward Ray Owes join Mills in the front court.

Khalid Reeves, a 6-1 junior who averaged 13.9 points and 3.9 assists last season, and Damon Stoudamire, a 5-10 sophomore who was the Wildcats’ sixth man last season, will start at guard.

ARIZONA STATE

1991-92 record: 19-14, 9-9.

Conference finish: Fifth (tie).

The Sun Devils had a turbulent off-season, losing forward Mario Bennett, their No. 2 scorer, and guard Quincy Brewer, their best recruit.

Bennett, a freshman All-American who averaged 12.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots last season, and Brewer, of J.W. North High in Riverside and ranked as the second-best West Coast prep player behind Kidd, will miss the season with knee injuries.

Junior forward Dwayne Fontana, who averaged 7.2 points and four rebounds last season, also will miss the early games. He was suspended by Frieder for the first semester after an alleged sexual assault. Although no charges were filed, Frieder disciplined Fontana because he broke curfew. He will be eligible for reinstatement when the semester ends Dec. 10.

Arizona State also lost forward Jamal Faulkner, the 1990-91 Pac-10 freshman of the year, who was dismissed from the team after he became involved in a series of legal problems. Faulkner, who was on probation for misusing a telephone credit card, was jailed for seven nights last summer for probation violations. He was later arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend and, although the charges were dropped, Frieder dropped him.

Marcell Capers, a 6-3 junior college transfer; Stevin Smith, a 6-2 junior, and Ron Riley, a 6-4 freshman, will start in the backcourt for the Sun Devils. Smith averaged 9.5 points and led the Pac-10 in steals with a 2.2 average last season. Capers, who played at College of the Sequoias last season, was ranked as the nation’s top junior college point guard.

Lester Neal, a 6-6 senior forward and James Bacon, a 6-8 sophomore swingman who played at Long Beach City College last season, will probably start in the front court.

CALIFORNIA

1991-92 record: 10-18, 4-14.

Conference finish: Ninth.

Kidd, the national prep basketball player of the year, has revived interest in Cal’s basketball program, which he hopes to take to the Final Four next season. Cal will play seven games at the Oakland Coliseum because of increased demand for tickets.

Coach Lou Campanelli, who didn’t give former Cal guard Kevin Johnson, now with the Phoenix Suns, complete control of the team, plans to let Kidd run the show.

The big question mark is 6-9 senior forward Brian Hendrick, who missed the final eight games last season with a dislocated left kneecap. A three-time all-conference selection, Hendrick has averaged 16.1 points and 8.8 rebounds in his college career.

Lamond Murray, a 6-7 sophomore forward who averaged 13.8 points and 6.1 rebounds, and Alfred Grigsby, a 6-9 sophomore forward who averaged 10.2 points and 6.2 rebounds last season, join Hendrick in the front court.

Guard Jerod Haase, a 6-2 freshman from South Lake Tahoe who was a two-time Nevada prep basketball player of the year, may replace 5-11 sophomore guard K.J. Roberts in the starting lineup.

OREGON

1991-92 record: 6-21, 2-16.

Conference finish: 10th.

Green, who helped build Kansas into one of the nation’s top basketball programs, has his work cut out for him at Oregon, which has had three losing seasons in the last four years.

The Ducks ended last season by losing their last nine games and 16 of their last 17 after three starters suffered foot injuries.

Forward Jordy Lyden, who missed most of last season with strained ligaments in his right foot, will red-shirt this season.

However, 6-5 junior forward Clyde Jordan, sidelined because of a stress fracture in his left foot, and 5-10 senior guard Andre Collier, who broke a bone in his right foot, have recovered.

Center Bob Fife, a 6-11 junior who red-shirted last season to bulk up, and 6-9 junior forward Jeff Potter, will start in the front court.

Guard Antoine Stoudamire, a 6-5 senior, the conference’s top returning scorer with a 20.5-point average, will provide the offense. His cousin, Damon, is Arizona’s starting point guard.

OREGON STATE

1991-92 record: 15-16, 7-11.

Conference finish: Seventh.

Haskin, who averaged 18.5 points and 6.5 rebounds last season, will anchor the Beavers’ front line of 6-4 sophomore forward Kareem Anderson and Scott, who averaged 17.8 points and 8.3 points last season before being declared academically ineligible.

Scott, who was charged with armed robbery after he allegedly robbed a pizza delivery man of a pizza last summer, was put on three years’ probation after pleading guilty to a weapons charge.

Brent Barry, son of former NBA star Rick Barry, and Charles McKinney will probably start in the backcourt. Barry, a 6-5 sophomore, averaged 5.2 points and 2.3 assists, and McKinney, a 6-2 senior, averaged 11.7 points, 3.3 assists and 1.4 steals last season.

STANFORD

1991-92 record: 18-11, 10-8.

Conference finish: Fourth.

Although Coach Mike Montgomery annually claims that he’s rebuilding, he has led the Cardinal to five consecutive postseason tournament appearances.

But this could be the season that Montgomery truly has to rebuild after losing all-conference forward Adam Keefe, the 10th pick in the 1992 NBA draft.

The Cardinal has three starters from last season’s team, which lost to Alabama in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

Point guard Marcus Lollie, a 6-foot senior, led the Pac-10 in assists last season and guard Peter Dukes, a 6-5 senior, was the second-best three-point shooter in the Pac-10 last season behind UCLA’s Tracy Murray.

Forward Brent Williams, a 6-6 junior who started every game last season, averaged 11.8 points and 4.8 rebounds.

WASHINGTON

1991-92 record: 12-17, 5-13.

Conference finish: Eighth.

This could be a critical year for Coach Lynn Nance, who might not survive a fourth consecutive losing season. The Huskies have finished ninth, 10th and eighth in the Pac-10 under Nance.

His deliberate offense hasn’t won many fans at Washington, where the women’s team outdraws the men’s.

Washington will have one of the best front courts in the Pac-10 with center Rich Manning and forwards Martin Keane and Mark Pope, last season’s Pac-10 freshman of the year.

Manning, a 6-10 senior, averaged 16.8 points and 6.1 rebounds last season, and Pope, a 6-9 sophomore, averaged 10.3 points and 8.1 rebounds. Keane, a 6-8 senior, sat out last season after transferring from Oklahoma, where he averaged five points and 4.3 rebounds. A native of Toronto, Keane played for the Canadian national team last summer.

WASHINGTON STATE

1991-92 record: 22-11, 9-9.

Conference finish: Fifth (tie).

After posting its best record in a decade and advancing to the second round of the NIT last season, the Cougars, who lost their top three scorers to graduation, will be rebuilding.

“I see where we’re picked 10th and I don’t think that’s because of alphabetical order,” Washington State Coach Kelvin Sampson joked.

Point guard Bennie Seltzer, a 6-foot senior who has led the Cougars in assists the last three seasons, will run the offense. Also returning are guard Eddie Hill, a 6-1 junior who started three games last season, forward Rob Corkrum, a 6-8 junior who started 11 games last season, and forward David Vik, a 6-11 sophomore, who played in 25 games in 1991 before red-shirting last season.

Mark Hendrickson, a 6-8 freshman forward who was voted the Washington prep player of the year, might start.