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Wildcats reclaim fading promise

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 25, 2001

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Arizona began the season with so much depth and talent that players hinted the national title wasn't a high enough goal. Center Loren Woods said the Wildcats might go down as the greatest team ever.

Then, before the first tipoff, Woods was suspended. Three weeks after he returned, the coach's wife died. A week later, Arizona was in a tailspin and in jeopardy of dissolving into an overrated flop.

Now the Wildcats are three wins from the national championship. And though their rebirth sets up a heartwarming tale about a group of young men coming together in tough times and using adversity as a springboard, players say it's no big deal.

"It's really hard to put a finger on why this is special to us, but I won't say it's because of things that happened in the past. That's definitely not why," forward Richard Jefferson said.

"We never made excuses that this is why or this is what's going on. We knew we just had to play better. Once we got into a groove, we knew things were going to turn around for us."

Second-seeded Arizona plays top-seeded Illinois in the region final today. It'll be their third meeting this season.

A 79-76 Arizona win in Maui on Nov. 22 and an 81-73 Illini victory in Chicago on Dec. 16 were heavy on physical play. Players are expecting more of the same with a spot in the Final Four on the line.

"I wouldn't say we'll approach it as a street fight, but there's going to be a lot of banging," said Illinois' Frank Williams, who set a career high with 27 points in the first game against the Wildcats, then topped that with 30 against Kansas in the region semifinals Friday.

THROWBACK: Longtime Spurs fans catching the region games at the Alamodome may have to do a double-take when they look at Arizona's Gene Edgerson.

No, he's not another Artis Gilmore. He just looks like him.

With his Afro, knee pads and tube socks with double stripes, Edgerson looks as if he would have fit in better 25 years ago, when Gilmore was a Spurs mainstay.

"It all started when one of my ex-teammates, Jason Terry, used to comment about my game, that it was old-school like," said the Arizona senior, whose physical inside game would draw attention even if his throwback look didn't.

He already had the knee pads, but he added the socks. He needed help finding just the right shoes. An equipment manager pulled a pair of 1980s Nikes out of the back of a storage room in the Wildcats' arena. They were in a box and had never been worn.

"Then I got a little bit clever and started growing out my hair," Edgerson said. "I was like, "Okay, if I'm going to have an old-school game, might as well look like one of the old-school players.' "

LATE FRIDAY: Midway through the first half, Kansas had more turnovers than points and was struggling to get off a shot. Then came the bruises.

After stifling the Jayhawks with defense, Illinois thwarted comeback hopes by rotating fresh bodies from its deep well of reserves.

All that was left was offense, and Williams took care of that in the Illini's 80-64 victory.

"Their physical size and rebounding ability took us out of our game plan," said Kansas coach Roy Williams, who suffered the biggest blowout loss in his 37 tournament games over 12 seasons. "Illinois made us play less than a perfect game, to say the least."

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