2: Arizona
The defending champs are stronger, quicker and deeper this
year. So how come nobody thinks they'll win
again?
 They have heard the doubters who say they are headed for a fall,
that the season to come is too full of physical and mental
obstacles for them to repeat as national champions. But
compared with what the Arizona Wildcats endured together
last May, how bad can the
trials ahead
be?
Just six weeks after whipping No. 1 seeds Kansas, North
Carolina and Kentucky to win the NCAA title, the newly
crowned champions embarked on a 23-day exhibition tour of
Australia, where, to hear the survivors tell it, hardship
and deprivation met them
at every turn. There was alien voltage that blew out their
VCRs, Aussie barbers who could not be trusted with Wildcats
coifs, and flies so big
"they made off with our luggage," according to
guard Miles Simon.
And the cuisine? Well, point guard Mike Bibby doesn't mind
a
little
adventure, but not when he sits down to eat. While his more
daring teammate, backup center Donnell Harris, tried camel and
crocodile meat, Bibby ate four McDonald's cheeseburgers a
day for 23 straight days. "It was terrible," he
says. "I had really been trying to cut down on
those."
But neither the joy of victory nor the hardships of travel
seem to have deterred Arizona in its effort to improve.
"I haven't seen any complacency with these guys,"
says coach Lute Olson. "In fact, I don't see any
change other than that they are a whole
lot better than they were. A.J. Bramlett is not even the
same player. And I think we can say that about all four of
the inside
guys."
Bramlett, a
6'11" junior center who led all players with
10.3 rebounds a game during the NCAAs (up from 6.2 during the
regular season), has continued what Olson calls the biggest
one-season improvement he has ever seen in one of his
players. He spent the summer in the weight room and on the
court, working out
religiously with Harris and forwards Eugene Edgerson and Bennett
Davison. "Our inside play is considerably improved
because of
strength that's been gained, not weight," says Olson. "We
keep saying it's fine to put on weight as long as it's
weight that helps you be quicker."
From the beginning of pickup games, Bramlett has felt that
his teammates' improved power and quickness could lead the
Cats to another title. "Everyone on this team amazes
me in some way," says Bramlett. "Every guy has
come back stronger and with new
moves."
With Olson welcoming back 11 letter winners from last
year—including all five starters—and adding redshirt freshmen
Quynn Tebbs and Justin Wessel, who practiced with the team
every day, that's a dizzying number of new moves.
"We're going to surprise a
lot of people," says Simon, who was the Most
Outstanding
Player at the Final Four. "We've got some new
stuff."
That all sounds promising, but isn't Arizona going to
crumble under the pressure of being the hunted? "I
don't see that happening with us because pressure doesn't
really bother us," says junior Jason Terry, who can
back up Bibby at point guard or join
him in a devastatingly quick three-guard lineup. "We've
got leaders on this
team."
One of the leaders, of course, is Bibby, a supersized
talent who overcame his fast-food fixation and returned to
school in better shape than ever and with more confidence
in his outside shot. Since arriving at Arizona last year,
Bibby has devoted his
spare time to
improving his jumper, and he gives most of the credit for
its
development to fellow sophomore Josh Pastner, a seldom-used
reserve who aspires to be an NBA coach. "We became
friends last
year because we both like to work on our shots, and we
would
rebound for each other," says Bibby, who shot a very
respectable .394 from beyond the three-point arc last year.
"Now he mostly rebounds for me. If my shot goes
bouncing off the rim, he knows what went wrong and why.
He's an unbelievably good coach. If he
wasn't here, I wouldn't have shot as well as I did last
year. I owe everything to
him."
After a summer separation during which Pastner coached a
youth team in Houston, and Bibby shot until he made 500
baskets each day at a church gym in Phoenix, the two are
working together again. They are even roommates, though
they seem to live at McKale
Center, where they shoot baskets late into the night, often
in the company of other
teammates.
|
Last Year | 25-9 |
|
Returning Starters | 5 |
| Points Per Game '96-97 | 83.9 |
| PPG By All Returning Players | 82.1 | The Wildcats are aware that they'll need every edge they
can get this year. "We know everyone is going to be
going hard at us, as if it's the championship game,"
says senior forward Michael Dickerson. "But we're
loose, we're confident, we're family. And
we've been through tough times
before."—Kelli Anderson
Next: Kansas
|
