Lots of New Faces, but Same Arizona

After being wracked by early defections and losing four starters to the NBA draft last summer, Lute Olson went into Nostradamus mode, prophesizing about the doom and gloom that awaited his young Arizona team as it headed for the toughest schedule in the nation.

The anonymous Wildcats then began the year by knocking off No. 2 Maryland, No. 5 Florida, No. 23 Texas and No. 5 Illinois in their first five games.

And when the Pacific 10 Conference resurrected its end-of-the-season tournament, the Wildcat coach led the picket parade, complaining that it undermined the regular season title’s significance and mourning the missed class time.

The no-longer-unknown Wildcats then responded by clawing their way to the tournament championship with a commanding three-games-in-three-days-performance.

Any guesses as to what that master sandbagger’s mood is entering the No. 3-seeded Wildcats’ West Regional semifinal against No. 2-seeded Oklahoma today at Compaq Center?

“It’s a tough matchup for us,” Olson said of the Sooners. “The three teams that they would be the most like would be the three teams we’ve had the most trouble with--Connecticut, Kansas and Oregon. [Oklahoma’s] perimeter guys are very quick, they shoot the ball from [deep outside] but they take the ball to the basket really well too

“[Oklahoma is] in an attack mode all the time with their quickness.”

Sounds like an Arizona rout, right?

Well, the Wildcats are an extension of their coach.

“From what I’ve heard, they’re a really big, physical team,” said junior forward Luke Walton. “We’re going to prepare for a war.”

Said junior guard Jason Gardner: “I know [the Sooners] are big guys and one of our biggest things is getting offensive boards and that’s one of their strongest points...they go to the boards hard.”

But Gardner, who initially applied for the NBA draft before withdrawing his name and returning to school, also swerved from Olson’s path of self-deprecation in describing the difference between the Arizona and Oklahoma backcourts.

“In a way, we’ve got a bit of an advantage,” Gardner said, “because we’ve been playing quick guards all year long in the Pac-10. I don’t know about the Big 12’s guards.”

Like the Wildcats (24-9), the Sooners (29-4) are coming off an unexpected conference tournament championship, having upset then-top-ranked Kansas in the Big 12 title game, 64-55.

Many expected the third-ranked Sooners to be awarded the No. 1 seeding in the West but it was instead given to Cincinnati, which was upended in double overtime by UCLA.

“Our initial thought about getting a No. 2 seed was we were disappointed,” said Sooner senior forward Aaron McGhee. “But Coach [Kelvin] Sampson did a good job of telling us we ... just needed to win games.”

Oklahoma has beaten Arizona three times in the four games they have met, including in the 1988 Final Four, 86-78, and in the first round of the 1999 NCAA tournament, 61-60.

While Olson doesn’t predict which will prevail--Arizona’s quickness and diversity or Oklahoma’s size and guile--it doesn’t take a crystal ball for Gardner to figure it out.

“The main thing is don’t look ahead,” he said. “If things aren’t going your way, you can’t get down. After the first round, you really get an understanding about playing hard. You understand what’s going on in the tournament. It shows that you can’t look ahead and that seeds don’t matter because anyone can beat anybody.”