Arizona looks younger, and the Golden Bears play younger.
But that shouldn’t matter, says Arizona head coach Lute Olson.
Inexperience has hurt Arizona on the road this season. The Wildcats (16-6 overall, 8-5 Pac-10) have lost four of their five Pacific-10 Conference road games.
“We haven’t swept a road trip so far this year,” Olson said. “Certainly, that will be a challenge for us to get that changed. It’s important for us to continue building the momentum as we get closer to tournament play.”
Arizona begins its final road trip of the season when it plays Oregon at McArthur Court tonight at 7:30. When the Ducks played Arizona in the desert on Jan. 25, they were blown out by 24 points.
But Oregon was without freshman Aaron Brooks at the time and without the 9,087 screaming fans that pack McArthur Court for every home game. Olson knows that playing in Eugene and the possibility of Brooks returning from injury could dramatically change the stakes.
“We know that the environment is something that gives a 15-point advantage (to Oregon) at least with the crowd there,” Olson said. “And the other thing is Aaron Brooks didn’t play against us down here and I understand he’s going to play up there.”
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent has said Brooks will probably not play, but that’s not final.
“It will be a totally different Oregon team if he plays,” Olson said.
No. 14 Arizona has only swept the Oregon road trip once in the last five seasons. The series between the two schools, which dates back to 1979, gives the Wildcats a slight 13-12 edge in games played in Eugene.
Although Arizona may be young, it does not lack talent. The Wildcats are led by sophomores Hassan Adams and Andre Iguodala.
Adams is averaging 16.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. Iguodala is becoming known as the king of the triple-double.
Iguodala earned his third triple-double of the season in Arizona’s 107-83 win against UCLA last weekend. Only California’s Jason Kidd earned more triple-doubles, with four, during the 1993-94 season.
Iguodala is averaging 13.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game. Arizona brings an experienced Salim Stoudamire to the guard spot and center Channing Frye has also stepped up in his junior season.
With only five regular-season conference games remaining for Arizona, each one becomes more important. Arizona is expected to advance to the NCAA Tournament but the count in the win column determines seeding.
“Every game is going to have some effect on the seeding and is going to also have an effect on how many teams the Pac-10 gets in the tournament,” Olson said. “Every game is important to every team in the league.”
Arizona has lost to Washington and USC on the road this year, and both are teams with worse records than Oregon.