PACIFIC 10 BASKETBALL / DAN HAFNER : Down but Not Out, Arizona Bounces Back

When they were beaten a couple of weeks ago by weak Washington, it appeared that Arizona, for the second time in eight years, was not going to win the Pacific 10 Conference championship.

But the Wildcats are resilient. They battled back and with just three weeks remaining in the regular season still have hopes of at least a share of the title.

Apparently, the jolt in Seattle was just what Coach Lute Olson’s team needed. Off their last four performances, the Wildcats appear to be the conference’s hottest team heading into the stretch.

They culminated their surge back into contention with a powerful 98-74 victory over UCLA at Tucson on Saturday, after winning convincingly at Stanford and California and at home over USC. The turnaround came after Olson made some changes in his offense.

The Wildcats, who had a 17-1 Pac-10 record last season and then were bounced from the NCAA tournament, changed their style this season. With probably the nation’s best guard combination, Damon Stoudamire and Khalid Reeves, they went from an inside game to a guard-oriented style. Gone were the big men, power forward Chris Mills and 7-footer Ed Stokes. It seemed a logical move.

The guards were effective early in the season, but opponents began to double-team them. With bulky 6-foot-8 Joseph Blair and 6-7 Ray Owes maturing rapidly, Olson went back to the inside game.

Blair and Owes responded; the heat was off Stoudamire, and Reeves and the Wildcats started to roll.

In the easy victory over the Bruins, Reeves and Stoudamire had 45 points, but they were only 15 of 38 from the field. Owes, from San Bernardino, had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lend a strong hand with his finest game.

Blair is a sophomore from Houston who spent last season as a backup. He is showing great potential.

“Last year, Chris and Ed needed the publicity, so I stayed in the background,” Blair said. “But now I’ve got my confidence, and when they started coming inside to me, I was ready. With Ray and I doing the job inside, it makes it easier for Damon and Khalid to get good shots.”

Olson also gives the fifth starter, 6-1 Reggie Geary, a share of the credit for the resurgence.

“Reggie fires us up,” Olson said. “He would be valuable without scoring a point. He can do so many things to disrupt the opposition.”

Geary, former Santa Ana Mater Dei High star, has a role he seems to relish. He is the Wildcats’ trash-talker and is so good at it, he upset Jason Kidd and Cal’s young coach, Todd Bozeman, a couple of weeks ago. The Bears lost their cool because of Geary, and this contributed to their collapse, enabling the Wildcats to turn a close game into a rout.

As Olson points out, the Wildcats don’t control their destiny. They need to win their last five, three of which are on the road, and have someone--possibly Cal on Thursday night--knock off UCLA.

The Wildcats play at Oregon State on Thursday night, at Oregon on Saturday, then play host to Washington and Washington State the next week before finishing the regular season at Arizona State on March 12.

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If there were any doubts that Jason Kidd belongs on everybody’s All-American team, they were dispelled on national television Sunday.

California’s sophomore guard took the Cincinnati Bearcats apart in the second half with his precision passing, and the shorthanded Bears scored an impressive 89-80 victory.

Because of injuries that have deprived the Bears of two starters, K.J. Roberts and Alfred Grigsby, and left them with a seven-man squad, Cal may be only the third-best team in the conference.

Kidd scored 22 points, including four free throws in the last two minutes, and had eight assists.

“Jason controlled the tempo when it got late into the game,” Bozeman said. “Those are things that make him the player that he is.”

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Go figure: The Pac-10 is ranked eighth among the major conferences by the USA Today/Sagarin Conference Ratings, but has a losing record against only one of the leagues ahead of them.

The Atlantic Coast Conference leads the Pac-10, 3-1. Overall, the Pac-10 is 13-8 against the other six leagues ranked above them, and is 64-30 in nonconference games this season.

Pac-10 Notes

The Pac-10 had tri-champions in football--UCLA, USC and Arizona. It could happen in basketball with UCLA, Arizona and California. . . . Arizona guard Khalid Reeves, second to Cal’s Lamond Murray in scoring, has made only one turnover in 124 minutes of the last four games. . . . Oregon junior guard Orlando Williams was the Pac-10 player of the week. He’s the first Duck to win the honor since Antoine Stoudamire two years ago. Williams had 65 points in leading Oregon to its first two road victories of the season. He had 40 points in the 98-87 upset at Washington State. . . . California freshman Michael Stewart blocked seven shots against Stanford to tie the conference record. . . . Jason Kidd needs 24 assists in his last six games to break the Pac-10 mark.