Arizona Teaches a Lesson

They pass. They cut. They rebound. They play defense.

Arizona’s players dismissed Purdue, 79-66, with ease Saturday in the first game of the Wooden Classic at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim partly because they understand there is more to the game than shooting.

Exactly how Coach Lute Olson has managed to meld a team with seven freshmen and only one starter back from a Final Four squad into the seventh-ranked team in the nation is hard to fathom. But Olson already has earned Purdue Coach Gene Keady’s support for coach of the year.

“I’d vote for Lute right now,” said Keady, whose team fell to 5-3.

Arizona is 5-1, with victories over four Top 25 teams.

The talk is inevitably of Jason Gardner and the composed group of freshmen, but the stalwarts Saturday were the other two juniors, Luke Walton and Rick Anderson.

On an afternoon when Gardner scored 14 points--his lowest output of the season--Arizona had no trouble, going ahead by as many as 24 points in a nearly flawless first half, then holding off a faint charge when Purdue cut the lead to 10 in the second.

Walton--with his father, Bill, on the sideline working as a television analyst and John Wooden in the stands--scored 17 points and had 13 rebounds, six assists and two steals.

“It’s an honor to play in a tournament involving Coach Wooden. I grew up listening to everything about what he taught my father,” Walton said.

Olson can appreciate that.

“I think Luke is exactly the type of player Coach Wooden loves to watch: He’s so unselfish and he plays all aspects of the game,” Olson said.

Walton’s double-double was his third in six games this season.

“I’m just a little upset nobody told me I had eight turnovers,” he said. “If I could have gotten two more, I could have had a triple-double tonight.”

Olson winced.

“I’d rather have the assists up to double figures. It would have been a triple-double but it wouldn’t have been one you wanted.”

Like Walton, Anderson has basketball in his blood. His father, Gary, is the coach at Long Beach City College.

Quite possibly Arizona’s best all-around shooter, Anderson missed a double-double by one rebound, finishing with 17 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots.

Together, he and Walton led a rebounding effort that buried Purdue.

By halftime, the pair had 17 rebounds and Purdue had 12.

By the end of the game, Arizona’s rebounding margin was 49-28. Arizona also out-shot Purdue, 53.7% to 36.5%, marking the first time this season Arizona has shot better than 50%.

The Arizona freshmen contributed mightily to the rebounding effort. Channing Frye had six rebounds, starting center Isaiah Fox had five, and Andrew Zahn, who redshirted last season, had five.

But it is the basketball savvy of Walton and Anderson along with Gardner’s willingness to share the spotlight that is making Arizona’s team work.

“I’ll tell you, the key is having those three juniors out there,” Olson said. “Their leadership has been not only on the court. It’s been off the court, starting with the first week the freshmen came in. I think they’ve done as good a job as any guys I’ve ever seen in terms of the leadership and getting the guys focused on what Arizona basketball’s about.”

Walton and Anderson--a redshirt last season--admit even they’re surprised by how well the young team has melded.

“We feel kind of like we have a lot of chemistry out there with Jason, Luke and I,” Anderson said.

The freshmen aren’t spectacular, but they are solid, led by Fox and Will Bynum, a short but high-leaping guard who also starts.

“I’m surprised how consistent they’ve been,” Walton said. “Since they’ve gotten here I’ve been convinced they’d be able to help us be a contender again. But I wasn’t sure with freshmen how consistent they’d be. But I think every game they’ve shown it. Different ones step up. They’re going to be there all year to help us out.”

The other constant, of course, is Olson.

Why are Arizona’s freshmen so good?

“I think it pretty much all has to do with the coaching,” Walton said.

“You see freshmen at different programs, out of high school they were ranked higher and they were All-Americans. But they’re not as consistent and not as ready to play year in and year out as the freshmen at our school.”