Cats Get Hammered

Published 9:00 pm Friday, January 26, 2007

Today looked like a big opportunity for the Pac-10 to solidify itself on a national level but instead it was disastrous as North Carolina hammered Arizona 92-64 in Tucson. It was the worst home loss in Lute Olson’s 24 years as the Wildcats’ head coach. And North Carolina did it without second-leading scorer and rebounder Brandan Wright. It continued an awful offensive stretch for Arizona, which is now 14-6 and is threatening to fall out of the Top 25. It was the lowest scoring game of the year for Arizona, which shot a shocking 1-for-23 on 3-pointers. I didn’t think Arizona was quite as good as it has been, especially with the depth problems. We’ll see how shaken the Wildcats are by the loss when Washington and Washington State go to Tucson next week.

We’re about 10 minutes away from the Huskies-Oregon State tip off and the starting lineup is the same, with Artem Wallace starting at center, Justin Dentmon and Ryan Appleby at guard and Phil Nelson and Jon Brockman at forward. Spencer Hawes played 29 minutes off the bench against Oregon so expect about the same today. Oregon State has not been a good offensive team so expect the Huskies to pressure OSU’s young backcourt. On offense, Washington will try to work the ball inside and get Beavers top scorers Sasa Cuic and Marcel Jones in foul trouble, something they’ve each struggled with this season.