These Cats Are Young : Arizona’s Six Freshmen Make Up the Best Recruiting Class This Side of Westwood, but for Now, Patience Is Everything

This is not a new experience for Arizona guard Jason Terry. A passel of kids clinging to him, depending on him, looking up to him.

It was like that back in Seattle, where he grew up the second oldest of 10 children while his mother was working as a bus driver.

It is that way now in Tucson, where he is Arizona’s point guard and, in the opinion of Wildcat Coach Lute Olson, the “mother hen” to the team’s six freshmen.

“I did a lot of baby-sitting growing up,” said Terry, a 6-foot-2 senior. “It was a single-parent home, and I was the oldest male.

“It’s kind of like that this year. I have to tell these guys over and over what to do, just like my little brothers and sisters. . . . Every time you turn around, they are back doing the same thing you told them not to do.”

Baby-sitting still isn’t easy, and these kids are a whole lot bigger.

To many, the best and the brightest freshman class east of Westwood is in Tucson, where Rick Anderson, Ruben Douglas, Richard Jefferson, Luke Walton, Traves Wilson and Michael Wright all have come to play. The group is rated a notch below UCLA’s class, which is considered the top freshman class in the nation.

Three years from now, people might know for sure. Tonight, when the undefeated and sixth-ranked Wildcats play 10th-ranked UCLA in Pauley Pavilion, it is merely the first round.

“If it comes down to straight talent, UCLA has the better class,” Olson said. “Three years from now, will UCLA have a better class than this one? That would be my challenge to our guys.”

His guys seem quite ready to toss down the gauntlet. “I can’t wait to play UCLA,” said Wright, a 6-7, 235-pound forward from Chicago. “I know it will be good competition. I think we’ll be ready for them.”

And . . .

“We have more veterans,” said Anderson, a 6-9 forward from Long Beach Poly High. “I think we’ll get them. I think we’ll beat them.”

Good thing Olson’s hair is already white. What keeps him from tearing it out in clumps is Terry, the team’s sixth man the past two seasons.

In a recent practice, it was Terry who was hollering at the freshman guards. “Watch me come around this screen. Watch me score.” In November, it was Terry who pulled Jefferson and Douglas aside after they cut some classes and told them to shape up.

And it is Terry who is averaging 20 points and playing nearly 36 minutes a game.

“There is not a lot of pressure on us because Jason is around,” Jefferson said. “The way he’s playing, taking the ball, running the offense, makes it easier on us.”

For now.

“Potential is a scary thing,” Jefferson said. “It means you have the ability to be really, really good. But if you aren’t, you disappoint a lot of people.”

Just Wait

UCLA’s freshmen were ushered in with even more fanfare and, with the exception of JaRon Rush’s bout with homesickness, have generally lived up to their billing. That’s due, in part, to Dan Gadzuric and Jerome Moiso being freshmen in name only. They’re 20-year-olds.

Arizona’s freshmen are young and, apparently, restless.

Jefferson and Douglas were suspended for an exhibition game after missing those classes. Last week, the two were sent home from a Las Vegas trip for what Olson called “childish behavior.”

A newspaper report said the two ran through the hallways at the MGM Grand, knocking on doors, oblivious that a casino might have a security camera or two. They missed the Wildcats’ game against Iowa State but returned to practice two days later.

Douglas, who played at Burbank Bellarmine-Jefferson High, is California’s 10th all-time leading scorer. Wright, who as a freshman at Farragut Academy was a teammate of Kevin Garnett’s, was the leading scorer for the U.S. team in the Junior World Championship qualifying tournament last summer. Jefferson was a McDonald’s All-American and the Arizona 4-A player of the year.

“I’m less concerned about our freshman class right now than I am about them reaching their potential by the time they leave here,” Olson said.

So far, it has been a bumpy ride, even discounting the Jefferson-Douglas shenanigans.

Walton, son of former Bruin star and NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton, is probably out for the season because of a stress fracture in his right foot. It’s an injury similar to the one that cut short his father’s career. Anderson has made periodic visits to the trainer that cost him practice time.

Wright has been a bright spot, to a point. He was berated by coaches after not having an offensive rebound against Wyoming. The next game, against UC Irvine, he had nine, finishing with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

“Every day we come to practice to play hard unless we want to get hollered at,” said Wright, who is averaging 14 points. “The first couple weeks, I was real frustrated. I kept thinking, ‘How can I play on this level?’ ”

That is still a question with others.

Jefferson, Wilson and Douglas have turned the shooting guard position into a quagmire. Wilson and Douglas started the season competing for that spot but played so poorly that Jefferson, an inside player in high school, was moved to guard.

Jefferson had some success before leaving Las Vegas. The job was returned to Wilson, who made four of five shots and scored 12 points against Iowa State. But he lost it because he was late getting back from winter break when his flight was delayed. Jefferson started the next game.

All of which allows Olson to call the Wildcats’ national ranking “a joke.”

“It’s like a surprise a minute, really,” Olson said. “A lot of times freshmen have been outstanding in a high school situation, but they have to learn to listen.

“The No. 1 adjustment I’ve had to make is to develop some degree of patience.”

Family Lessons

Patience is easier to come by when the ball is in Terry’s hands. It’s just not so easy on Terry.

He has looked left, then right, during games this season and found no Mike Bibby, no Miles Simon, no Michael Dickerson--the core of Arizona’s 1997 national championship team.

“It was a little scary [without them] earlier this season,” Terry said. “I thought all of us made each other better. Coming into this year, I knew my role would be to basically be the Man. . . . I have a little more responsibility.”

Olson gave him the role shortly after Arizona returned from its collapse against Utah in the West Regional final last spring.

Responsibility comes easily to Terry, who has had a lot of on-the-job training.

His mother, Andrea Cheatham, was a city bus driver who worked long hours to support her family. Terry and his siblings sometimes rode the bus for hours, just to be with their mother.

“She would work overtime to buy me basketball shoes or anything I needed,” Terry said. “I took care of things while she was at work, changing diapers, cooking, making emergency hospital runs.”

So, dealing with this group of freshmen hasn’t been a problem.

“It’s a waiting process, but we’re at the point of urgency,” Terry said. “These guys don’t know what it’s going to be like in the Pac-10.”

They will get a pretty good idea shortly after tonight’s 7:30 tipoff.

“This has always been a big rivalry,” Jefferson said. “When you combine that with having two of the top freshman classes in the country, it makes it even more fun.”

TONIGHT’S GAME: No. 6 ARIZONA (8-0) vs. No. 10 UCLA (8-2) at Pauley Pavilion; 7:30 p.m.

TV: FX

RADIO: KXTA 1150