Woods’ return makes Arizona favorite for Pac-10 title

  Daily Bruin File Photo Practices started last week for
senior Earl Watson, shown here going up for a shot
in a game against DePaul last season, and the rest of the UCLA
men’s basketball team.

By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

With the basketball season coming up soon and the first official
practices of the season starting a little more than a week ago,
many are slating the Arizona Wildcats as the Pac-10 team to
beat.

“Obviously Arizona is the runaway favorite,” UCLA
head coach Steve Lavin said. “That’s no big secret with
five Wooden Award candidates of their entire starting five. They
bring back a lot of experience and are well-coached.”

What does Arizona think about all the talk of a national
championship before the opening tip?

“The hype is going to be there, so why guard against
it?” Arizona head coach Lute Olsen said. “This group
has a lot of potential. They recognize that and I think
that’s going to help us because they are that focused on what
they want to accomplish.”

After the Wildcats, many coaches feel that the conference is
within their grasp.

“I think after that it’s highly competitive,”
Lavin said. “UCLA, Stanford, Oregon State, USC … all of
these schools are in the mix. It is a wide open Pac-10
race.”

In Arizona, Olsen was quick to discuss the return of center
Loren Woods, who chose not to enter the NBA Draft. Woods
transferred from Wake Forest two years ago after Tim Duncan’s
departure to the pros. After back surgery that both ended his
season just before March Madness and virtually destroyed
Arizona’s hopes of winning the national title for the first
time since 1997, Woods’ presence on the floor is
monumental.

“I think it was good for Loren to get out there, for
everyone to see that there is no problem with that back at
all,” Olsen said after the team’s first practice.

With Woods comes All-Pac-10 performer Michael Wright and
frontline help in Richard Jefferson, who broke his wrist last year
and did not return until late in the season.

“It looks like (Jefferson) is jumping even better than he
was before,” Olsen said. “(Wright’s) much quicker
and more agile … he’s at 245 pounds, but he’s a very
strong 245. He looks great in terms of his conditioning.”

With sophomores Jason Gardner and Gilbert Arenas in the
backcourt with a year of play under their belts, it is no surprise
that Arizona has the college basketball gods smiling upon them.

At Southern Cal, head coach Henry Bibby can boast of five
returning starters and a deeper bench. With recruiting and
development, the Trojans feel they can return to where they were at
the start of the last conference season, with a chance to contend
for the Pac-10’s top spot.

“I think last year, while we were still healthy, we showed
we were an unselfish team and were willing to share the ball with
one another,” Bibby said. “If we hadn’t lost
Jarvis Turner and Sam Clancy we would have contended for the Pac-10
title last year. When two of your top six guys go down, it hurts.
Our bench was thin last year. This year, there is more to turn
to.”

Two players who USC can definitely turn to are wing-forward Jeff
Trepagnier and point guard Brandon Granville. Trepagnier, one of
the conference’s most exciting players, has an arsenal of
aerial moves that had jaws dropping throughout the country last
year. Granville is a floor leader who needs only 22 assists to
break the school record in that category.

“Jeff is an example of someone who has improved each year
he has been here,” Bibby said. “When he came to USC, he
was more of an athlete than a basketball player. But through a lot
of hard work, he is rounding into a complete player. Last year, he
proved to be one of our top outside shooters.”

“Brandon really showed he’s one of the top point
guards in the conference last year,” Bibby added. “Now
I’d like to see him step it up a notch and be a little more
intense out there. He’s our floor general and the team will
follow his lead.”

In Westwood, the opening day of practice was a chance for Lavin
and Co. to take a glance at all the hype regarding their returning
starters and freshmen. But for the Bruins, success begins with
senior co-captain Earl Watson.

“From the minute he stepped on this campus, the strength
of Watson has been his leadership in terms of communicating with
his teammates and the coaching staff,” Lavin said.

With sophomore Jason Kapono’s decision to return to UCLA
rather than enter the NBA, the CBS National Freshman of the Year
must live up to even higher expectations this season and has
responded with more work in the offseason.

“(Jason) is thrilled about the upcoming season,”
Lavin said. “With guys like Earl, Jason and Dan (Gadzuric),
their attitude and maturity is the thing that strikes me.
It’s invaluable because they have been through so much over
the years.”

But the name that rings loudly in the conference is that of
freshman forward T.J. Cummings.

“We expect T.J. to have an impact right out of the
gates,” Lavin said. “In terms of defensive rebounding
and blocking shots, similar to his father (NBA veteran Terry
Cummings), he plays inside and out, offensively. The feedback you
get from the players is that he has made the biggest statement and
we expect a lot out of him this year.”

Lavin emphasizes to the media and his players that strength of
schedule is critical for playing well down the stretch and
receiving a good seed in March.

“There’s not a game on the schedule where if you
don’t show up ready to play, you’re not going to get
beat,” he said.

. . .

The Pac-10 Conference announced Monday the resurrection of a
postseason conference tournament, to start in March 2002. The
tournament had been held between 1987 and 1990, but was axed
following poor attendance. According to the new agreement, the
tournament will be staged at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. No
terms of the proposal with Staples Center management nor a
television contract have been released.

Eight men’s programs and all ten women’s basketball
programs will be given an invitation to participate. This agreement
leaves the Ivy league as the only major NCAA Division I conference
without a conference tournament that provides an automatic bid to
March Madness.