Lute Olson's back, and the same goes for his Wildcats

Somewhere, beneath all that hair, the light bulb went off for Eugene Edgerson.

Now might be the time for the University of Arizona senior to stop worrying about playing time and start thinking about postseason play. So, to that end, Edgerson shut up and put up seven points in 13 minutes against UCLA.

"Things are great," Edgerson said following his return from a suspension due to his grousing about playing time. "I was making something out of nothing."

As for the Wildcats, the No.1 team in many preseason polls, they are finally making something out of a season that, at least by their standards, looked to be going nowhere.

Since Lute Olson returned to the bench after the death of his wife of 47 years, Bobbi, from ovarian cancer, the Wildcats beat UCLA and USC handily and moved up five spots in the rankings from No. 17 to No. 12.

Against UCLA, the Wildcats used a tenacious defense to win the second half 55-22 en route to an 88-63 win.

"We're back in the mix," Olson said after the UCLA game. "Somebody needs to get Stanford along the way here, but I think that's a definite possibility with either of these two teams (UCLA and USC)."

"When we play like that," Wildcats forward Luke Walton said, "I don't think anybody can beat us."

Prior to last weekend, Arizona, a team with five Wooden Award candidates, looked beatable by just about everyone.

"The biggest problem that we've had all year has been the instability of everything," Olson said. "We just haven't had the team together for a whole lot of games. When the team was together, then I wasn't there."

Center Loren Woods and forward Richard Jefferson both endured NCAA suspensions. And Olson could only be with the team part time and then not at all following Bobbi's death. "We've finally got a stable situation now where I think we can get ourselves going on the roll that I think we should have," the coach added.

Olson said Monday's practice session was the best and most confident he has seen his team all season. Edgerson agreed things are getting back to normal.

"You can just see it in practice," Edgerson said. "More passes are being made on the offensive end, and guys are getting after it on the defensive end. The intensity is there."

Now, so are the expectations. Again.

Promotion commotion

Cal was 3 of 12 from behind the arc in an 84-58 loss at Stanford last week.

Marcia Bruggeman was 3 for 3 and won $1,000.

Bruggeman was picked for a 3-point shooting contest during a timeout at Maples Pavilion, calmly nailed three shots and walked away with the cash.

What most didn't know at the time was that Bruggeman had played for Cal for two seasons in the early 90s. Even with her background, making the three 3-pointers was quite an accomplishment. The 5-foot- 9 former guard/forward was only 1 of 2 from beyond the arc in her whole Cal career.

All talk

Arizona guard Gilbert Arenas once again refused to talk to the media following the Wildcats' 88-63 win over UCLA Saturday. Only this time he may have had a good excuse.

It seems that Arenas had used all his A-material on Bruins guard Ray Young. Young hit 5 of 7 before Arenas talked Young out of his game in the second half.

"Gilbert Arenas got in his head," said Michael Holton, the Bruins assistant coach. "You have to have more poise."

Young went 2 of 9 from the floor and 1 of 4 from the free-throw line in the last 20 minutes of the game. Arenas stopped talking to local media following Arizona's loss to Stanford Jan. 6. In that game, he made only 3 of 14 shots. Afterward, Arenas said he didn't want to talk because he felt he was in a shooting slump.

Since going silent, he has made 27 of 47 shots in four games. Olson has said he will not force Arenas to speak with the media covering Arizona.

"If he starts talking, he might start missing," the coach said.

Trade winds

Washington State coach Paul Graham has had to face question after question on how to beat No. 1 Stanford. Tuesday, he may have come up with the best possible solution.

"We need to make a trade with the Lakers," he said. "Maybe get Kobe and Shaq and some of those guys up here."

It's official

Lou Campanelli was hired by the Pacific-10 Conference last spring to make sure coaches and players got a fair shake when it came to officiating. The former Cal coach's job was to not only take over the role of director of officiating but to smooth over the hard feelings many in the league had for officials when Booker Turner was in charge. Many of the coaches often said that Turner was obstinate when it came to discussing complaints concerning officiating.

Of course, there are still some complaints about the officials, especially by USC coach Henry Bibby. But, many coaches and players do agree that the calls have been more consistent this season. Now, Campanelli's campaign is to get the fans to understand the difficulty that comes with calling a game.

"It's easy for fans to boo, but what they don't understand is that official Joe X could make 15 calls in a game and nail 13, but everybody draws their evaluation on the one or two suspect calls," Campanelli told the San Jose Mercury News. "You think a pharmacist could fill a prescription with 14,000 people screaming at him?"

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
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