Stanford may have clinched a share of the Pacific-10 Conference title with its win over UCLA Saturday, but the Cardinal still need one more victory to capture the championship outright.
And the No. 9 Arizona Wildcats will do everything they can not to give them that win on Thursday.
Top-ranked Stanford (27-1 overall, 15-1 Pac-10) and Arizona (21-7, 13-3) headline this week’s Pac-10 schedule, as the two prepare for a Thursday night showdown in Palo Alto, Calif., that will be nationally televised at 7:30 p.m. by Fox Sports Net.
“We are definitely a very different team than when we played Stanford [in January],” said Arizona junior Richard Jefferson after his team’s victory against Oregon Saturday. “They are the number one team in the country. It’s going to take a lot to go up there and beat them.”
The previous meeting that Jefferson was referring to was an 85-76 Stanford victory on Jan. 6 in Tucson that came at an emotionally trying time for Arizona. The Wildcats were playing their third consecutive game without head coach Lute Olson, who was taking a leave of absence following the death of his wife, Bobbi.
The loss was Arizona’s fourth in seven games, but after the game, Wildcat players knew there was plenty of time to turn their season around.
“Right now, they are a better team than we are, but that’s just today,” Arizona center Loren Woods said back then. “That’s why the NCAA Tournament is in March. This is a tough loss, but I think you still might see the Pac-10 race come down to these two teams.”
Since that day, Arizona has won 13 of 15 games and still has a shot at a piece of the Pac-10 title if it wins its final two games and Stanford loses both. But realistically, Arizona knows that it is one loss behind where it needed to be in order to make a run at Stanford — and views its loss to Oregon on Feb. 4 as the game it should have won.
So it was not surprising to see the Wildcats play with fire and emotion in their 104-65 victory against the Ducks Saturday.
“We owed them one,” Arizona senior forward Eugene Edgerson said. “It’s because of them we won’t win the Pac-10 championship. Right now, we are moving in the right direction. We’re playing now like we should’ve been since day one.”

Sophomore sharpshooter honored
If the Wildcats want to have any shot of upending the nation’s top team on its home floor, they must contain Stanford forward Casey Jacobsen, who was honored as Pac-10 Player of the Week.
Jacobsen helped lead his team to road victories against the L.A. schools, as he averaged 19 points and four rebounds over the weekend.

Overheard from McKale Center
Not only did Oregon have to endure a 39-point loss to Arizona Saturday, but it had to put up with the relentless McKale Center crowd, who were enjoying every minute of the game at the Ducks’ expense.
A select few of the chants and taunts from the Wildcat fans…
After an Oregon time-out and the score 51-17 in the Arizona’s favor: “Welcome to the jail, Oregon!”
Then came the “Oregon State was better” chant, followed up by a similar, “Let’s go Beavers!” They then finished with the always popular, “Go start the bus!”
One of the departing shots that the crowd gave the Ducks as they walked off the court was, “Don’t worry Oregon, at least there’s the NIT.”
Without realizing it, that fan rubbed even more salt into the apparently postseason-less Ducks’ wound.