Stoudamire, Elliott All-Century
Former Arizona and NBA standouts Sean Elliott and Damon Stoudamire were named to the Pac-12’s 20-player “All-Century team” that was announced this week on the Pac-12 Networks.
John Wooden of UCLA was named all-time coach and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar the all-time top player, while the five “starters” were Abdul-Jabbar, Elliott, Marques Johnson of UCLA, Gary Payton (I) of OSU and Gail Goodrich of UCLA.
UA guards Mike Bibby and Jason Terry, along with coach Lute Olson, were also named as finalists for the all-century team.
Wildcat chalk
Arizona may have finished in a tie for third place in the Pac-12, without beating either of the league’s top two teams, but there’s a lot of sentiment backing the Wildcats as favorites to win the Pac-12 tournament.
People are also reading…
And money.
Arizona was listed as a 2-1 favorite to win the league tourney by the William Hill chain of sports books, presumably at least in part because of the heavy number of UA fans in town who may bet on the Wildcats. Oregon and Utah were each listed as 3-1. California was listed at 9-2.
Then there’s Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic and Pat Rooney of the Boulder Daily Camera, who each declared UA the favorite, too.
“With all other matchups and minutiae of strengths and weaknesses generally appearing largely even among the top contenders,” Rooney wrote, “Arizona is my pick to take home the conference crown with its home-away-from-home atmosphere providing a key edge.”
Arizona is also listed at 28-1 to win the NCAA tournament, according to VegasInsider.com.
No-shows everywhere
The Pac-12 issued a release Tuesday saying that all sessions of the Pac-12 tournament were sold out and, sure enough, the MGM Grand Garden Arena wasn’t selling any tickets Wednesday. When we asked at the box office, it suggested trying the secondary market online.
Yet the place was only about half full when Stanford and Washington played in the first game at noon local time and maybe 60 percent full for the midafternoon game between Colorado and Washington State.
Elephant in room
Counting its 91-68 loss to Washington on Wednesday, Stanford has lost three straight games since point guard Christian Sanders was suspended for a violation of team rules, including a 32-point blowout loss at McKale Center last Saturday.
Cardinal coach Johnny Dawkins indicated that’s a big part of what’s wrong, even though Sanders averages only 4.3 points and 2.6 assists per game.
“Things that he did may not have shown up in the numbers,” Dawkins said. What’s been “absent the last three games is someone stepping up in that role of leadership, keeping the guys together out there, and someone to get us into offense. That’s been a little bit of a disruption for us.”
UA assistant coach Book Richardson, who has scouted Stanford all season, said Sanders’ absence is important because he allows the other players to play their true positions. The Cardinal started Marcus Allen at point guard Wednesday and played him for 37 minutes; Allen had three turnovers to just two assists.
Ego in check
Washington’s Andrew Andrews dumped 47 points on Washington in a Senior Night performance last week, but had a much more modest 14 points on Wednesday against Stanford.
Andrews also had nine assists to three turnovers, with two steals.
Those are the kinds of numbers Washington coach Lorenzo Romar was glad to see.
“I didn’t think he at all came out to say, ‘I know how to get 47. I’m gonna get 50 this time,’ ” Romar said. “He just went out and played basketball, and ran the team. That’s a real sign of maturity.”
Hip-hop tapping
Tap-dancing twins Sean and John Scott will entertain fans at halftime of Thursday’s Arizona-Colorado game, and it won’t be your grandfathers’ tap dancing.
The Scott brothers’ bio says they “evolutionize tap through a unique fusion of past traditional dance routines and modern hip-hop,” and evidence of their style and attitude is easily found on YouTube.
The Pac-12 lined up Vegas-style entertainment for all halftime shows and national anthems this week. Among others, it had one of the Jersey Boys singers doing the national anthem before Wednesday night’s games while the one-man variety act “Peter Rabbit” appeared during halftime of Wednesday’s ASU-OSU game.
The big number
7
Straight losses in the Pac-12 tournament for Washington State, which hasn’t won since 2009, when the Cougars beat now-WSU coach Ernie Kent and Oregon 62-40.
He said it
“Think we’re gonna say ‘No?’ ” — Washington coach Lorenzo Romar, when asked if the Huskies could get hot and win four games in the Pac-12 tournament this week.
