Arizona’s Woods Is on the Way Up Again

Loren Woods didn’t merely save Arizona with his off-the-mat second-half performance against Illinois, he may have saved his NBA career. The 7-foot-1 senior center has been an enigma all year after looking like a lottery pick after his junior season.

When a scout was asked during the tournament how low Woods’ NBA stocked had dropped, the guy said, “Antarctica.”

Opposing crowds had been chanting “CBA, CBA” to Woods, and Coach Lute Olson had nearly given up on solving his center.

“It’s been a work in progress, no question about that,” Olson said this week.

Then, out of nowhere . . . in the first half against Illinois, Woods had no shots from the field, no rebounds and three turnovers. He finished with 18 points and seven blocked shots, and made 12 of 13 free throws.

That performance alone ought to raise Woods’ stock to, oh, somewhere in Queensland?

Woods has been more a 7-1 mystery than a 7-1 wonder this season. He was labeled damaged goods when he came to Arizona from Wake Forest, where he played a season with Tim Duncan but became overwhelmed by the comparisons.

After sitting out a season, Woods seemed transformed, winning honors as Pacific 10 Conference newcomer of the year last year as a junior. He averaged 15 points and seven rebounds a game and was a menacing shot blocker.

Yet back problems forced him out of the team’s last eight games and Arizona lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Wisconsin.

Woods twice had back surgery in the off-season and felt so good about the upcoming season his mouth started moving faster than his feet.

It was Woods, remember, who started all this greatest-team-ever nonsense.

He sat in a ballroom in November during Pac-10 media day and joked about this Arizona team being able to defeat Bill Walton’s great UCLA teams in the 1970s. Bill’s son, Luke, is a reserve forward for the Wildcats.

“This team can be as good as it wants to be,” Woods said then. “I think with the talent that we have, it compares up there with anybody in the nation and the history of college basketball.”

Woods set out to prove it by . . . getting suspended for the first six games for taking money from a summer league coach.

This “greatest team ever” started 8-5, and Woods never fully emerged from his funk.

Olson says the six missed games hurt Woods, yet it was no secret the Arizona coach was becoming exasperated by his center’s erratic play.

Olson benched Woods for the Oregon State game after he back-talked the coach at practice the day after a humiliating road loss at Oregon.

Woods is prone to mood swings and has a very fragile basketball psyche. You can tell how he’s playing by the look on his face.

At one point during the season, a frustrated Olson said: “If he wants to beat himself up, that’s his option. It’s his life and he’ll live with it.”

Woods says he now regrets not turning pro last year, when his stock was high--Woods could write the manual for why players should leave early for the pros.

That said, Arizona still needs Woods to defeat Michigan State on Saturday and advance to Monday’s national title game.

Why Woods suddenly came alive in the final 10 minutes against Illinois is difficult to say.

“I just kept thinking things would turn around,” Woods said.

Woods is not aggressive. True. He doesn’t take the ball strongly to the basket. True. He seems lost at times on the court. True.

But also true: There is no replacing his presence.

At 7-1, he runs the court well and is an intimidating defender.

“He’s critical to us,” Olson said, “just as he was against Illinois, even though he didn’t play well the first 25 minutes.

“Down the stretch he was huge. He’s the guy who makes it tough for people to take it to the hole, because if he doesn’t block it, he’s certainly going to affect the way the guy looks at a shot.”

Woods is also an anomaly for a big man. He is an 83.3% free-throw shooter.

Is Woods an NBA lottery pick?

Hardly.

Is Arizona one of the greatest teams in college basketball history?

Please.

Yet, with two games separating Arizona from its second national title in four years, there is plenty left for Woods to salvage.

THE MATCH (UP) GAME

Duke won two of three games played against Maryland, but Maryland won the aggregate point total: 269-262.

Reason? Maryland point guard Steve Blake has been able to neutralize Duke star Jason Williams. Hard to believe, we know. Williams is the hottest player in the NCAA tournament, averaging 28 points in four games.

But in three games versus Maryland? Williams had 13 points and 10 turnovers in the Jan. 27 game before Blake fouled out with 1:51 left. Williams finished with 25 points, and Duke won in overtime.

Williams had only 13 points in Maryland’s 91-80 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium and 19 in Duke’s 84-82 victory in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

Maryland Coach Gary Williams says Blake has done a nice job but says it’s going to take more than one player to stop Williams.

“I have seen what Jason Williams has done in the NCAA tournament, so we know that playing a team defense is what we have to do. I mean, you have your individual matchups, but with certain guys you have to give a little more.”

LOOSE ENDS

Not a Shock Dept.: Maryland Coach Williams thinks the NCAA selection committee did a brilliant job seeding the tournament. “They put us in a region we could win,” Williams said.

Maryland was third in the West. Indiana in 1981 and Michigan in 1989 also won championships as third-seeded teams.

If you believe in karma, this must be Duke’s year. When the Blue Devils won the title in 1992, their NCAA tournament route went from Greensboro, N.C., to Philadelphia to Minneapolis.

This year, Duke took the same Greensboro-Philadelphia route in the East Regional to win a Final Four pass to . . . Minneapolis.

After placing only three teams in the tournament last season, the ACC is back in good graces, advancing two teams to the Final Four for the first time since 1991. This is the 13th time two teams from the same conference have advanced this far. In 1985, of course, the Big East made up three-fourths of the Final Four with Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s. The other team in 1985 was Memphis.

What was Wisconsin thinking? You don’t fire Brad Soderberg, Dick Bennett’s hand-chosen successor, unless you have Rick Majerus or Ben Braun signed, sealed and delivered. Don’t the Badgers look silly now that Majerus has formally rejected the school’s overtures and Braun has signed a four-year extension at California? It appears Wisconsin will hire fall-back candidate Bo Ryan of Wisconsin Milwaukee, not exactly a household name. How is Bo Ryan better than Brad Soderberg?

It’s probably not coincidence the four teams playing this weekend annually play the most ambitious nonconference schedules in the country. Arizona has an anywhere, any time policy (except for the occasional weather bailout at St. Joseph’s). Duke played Illinois, Stanford, Temple (twice), Texas and Boston College.

Maryland took on Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.

Michigan State hosted, and defeated, three of of last year’s Final Four participants-- Wisconsin (conference game), Florida, North Carolina and, in the biggest nonconference upset of all, ended the Harlem Globetrotters’ 1,270-game winning streak.

“It gives you something to gauge how good you are,” Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo says of tough scheduling. “Players can lose perspective because everybody’s telling them how good they are. But we as coaches can also lose perspective if you’re beating people bad.”

This may be the most competitive Final Four in years, with all four schools having a legitimate chance at winning the title.

Arizona was the preseason No. 1. Michigan State is the defending national champion. Maryland is the hottest team in the field and Duke, well, is Duke.

“I believe all four teams are at the top of their games,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Not only do we have four really good teams, we have four teams playing their best basketball right now.”