Tired legs, bad defense contributing to Arizona's woes

	Jawann McClellan's shooting slump has been only one of the problems Arizona has faced during its recent slide. John W. McDonough/SI
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Arizona coach Lute Olson is usually as unflappable as they come. So it was a little surprising to hear him get testy with the local media last week when pressed about why he was playing his starters so many minutes.

"Some of you are trying to make a big issue of that," Olson said. "I think it's probably time you guys find something to write about other than how many minutes guys are playing, unless you want to write about everybody else in the conference."

Olson did have a point. The Wildcats have three players ranked at the top of the Pac-10 in minutes played, but so does league-leading Oregon. (Ducks guard Aaron Brooks, the favorite for conference player of the year, is first at 38.3 per game.) California also has two players in the top six in that category, while UCLA has four players averaging 30-plus minutes.

Then again, the writers had a point, too. While only one Arizona reserve, 6-3 junior guard Daniel Dillon, is averaging double-figure minutes, Oregon has five non-starters playing 10-plus per game. UCLA and Arizona State have seven guys playing double-figure minutes. Nobody else in the league has fewer than eight. Arizona is also the only team in the conference that has all five starters playing 31 minutes or more each game.

None of this would be noteworthy but for the fact that Arizona, which began the season with designs on winning the Pac-10 title and a national championship, is now in seventh place in the conference with a 5-4 record (14-5 overall). The Wildcats' five losses are by a total of 20 points, and one went to overtime. Before they beat Arizona State on Wednesday night, the Wildcats had lost three straight -- their longest losing streak in the league in 23 years -- and four of their last five. Isn't it logical to surmise that tired legs might be a concern?

Not surprisingly, Olson did not agree with this analysis when I asked him about it on Tuesday. He did, however, mention several times that he was looking forward to getting Bret Brielmaier back. Brielmaier, a 6-6 junior forward who originally joined the team as a walk-on, tore a meniscus in his knee on Jan. 4 and had arthroscopic surgery four days later. "He'll be back practicing with us on Monday," Olson said. "He's very important because he's been with this program for a while." When a third-year player who has never averaged two points per game is deemed "very important," it can't be a great sign.

There are two areas where tired legs usually affect a team. The first is defense, which is not Arizona's strength to begin with. "It's not a team with great all-around quickness, so there are limitations on what we can do," Olson said. Associate head coach Jim Rosborough told me Arizona has played more zone this season than at any time during the 18 years he has worked for Olson in Tucson. "Stopping dribble penetration has hurt us as much as anything," Rosborough said. "Everybody knows that if you let people get into the lane, they're going to hurt you."