Arizona head coach Lute Olson will look for career victory No. 701 on Saturday after passing another milestone against rival Arizona State last weekend.
It won’t be an easy task as his No. 3 Wildcats face their toughest opponent so far this season — No. 4 Stanford. The Cardinal is unbeaten at 11-0, and Arizona’s only loss was by one point against then-No. 8 Florida.
Arizona (9-1 overall, 1-0 Pac-10) comes off a blowout win over Arizona State on Saturday. Junior guard Salim Stoudamire had 26 points for the Wildcats.
After the game, Arizona State head coach Rob Evans took a shot at Olson, saying that the Stanford team coming on Thursday would be a much more worthy opponent.
“The team we play next is better than this team,” Evans told the Arizona Daily Wildcat.
It is not unusual for the Cardinal to be off to a quick start. Stanford opened the 1998 season at 18-0, the 2000 season at 12-0 and the 2001 season at 20-0.
The Cardinal comes off two victories over Washington and Washington State with senior forward Justin Davis leading Stanford in scoring. Davis recorded his third double-double of the season against the Huskies with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Junior forward Josh Childress saw his first action this season against the Washington schools. Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery said he will see limited action this week as well.
Arizona finished atop the Pac-10 Conference last year with only one loss. That loss came against Stanford and took place in Arizona.
“That’s not an issue,” Olson said on Tuesday. “We were 17-1 in the league last year and we were disappointed that we lost to Stanford here, but we still have the Pac-10 trophy in our trophy case.”

Long range conference
Note to all other NCAA conferences: Don’t let any Pacific-10 Conference team shoot the long ball unless it can’t be avoided.
Why?
Not only has Oregon already led the nation in three-point shooting percentage, but ten different players hit three or more three-pointers in a game during the opening weekend of conference action.
Leading the way was Oregon’s James Davis, who scorched USC by shooting 7 of 10. Stoudamire made six against Arizona State, and California’s Amit Tamir had 10 in his opening two games.
Oregon’s Aaron Brooks had three against USC.
Cal made 26 three-pointers in its first nine nonconference games — averaging a league low 2.89 three-pointers per game. In the opening weekend, the Golden Bears notched 15 from downtown.

Rubin receives recognition
Junior guard Janou Rubin of UCLA is finally having his chance in the spotlight.
Rubin — a walk-on from Union City, Calif., who was put on scholarship this season — was awarded the Pac-10 Player of the Week honors after leading the Bruins to victories over Oregon and Oregon State.
He averaged 21 minutes off the bench and posted an average of 13 points, 2 rebounds and 2.5 assists.
Over the weekend Rubin shot 9 of 14 from the field, an impressive 83 percent, and made five three-pointers.

Rough beginning for Bears
California isn’t off to the start that some would have expected.
The Golden Bears sit in a tie for fourth in conference play at 1-1, but the team’s 5-6 overall record is the worst in the conference. The Bears played one ranked opponent in the preseason, losing to then-No. 12 Saint Joseph’s 59-57 in Oakland.
Cal’s schedule will not get any easier for the time being with three straight road games coming up. It faces the Arizona schools this weekend and then heads to Stanford.