Defending Champion Arizona Vs. UW: Choose Your Poison

Arizona and Washington play in one of college basketball’s most visible name commodities: The Pacific-10 Conference. But if you’re searching for more similarities, please stop.

At times, opposites do indeed attract in college basketball, which will make today’s matchup in Hec Edmundson Pavilion enjoyable to analyze. The game will feature, depending upon whom you ask:

Arizona’s quick, gifted athletes vs. UW’s Twin Tower tandem.

Or:

The defending national champion’s quick strike offense vs. the Huskies’ fundamentally sound defense.

Or:

One program that is one of the nation’s elite led by a CEO-looking grandfather who commands respect vs. a program searching for national consideration led by a young point guard.

Then there is former Federal Way High School standout Mike Dickerson (18.5 points per game), Arizona’s leading scorer who is playing his final game at Hec Ed. Combined, Simon, Bibby and Dickerson average 53 points and 12 assists per game. UW’s Donald Watts is assigned to guard Simon while Deon Luton will track Dickerson.

To cause more problems defensively and increase the tempo, the Wildcats can turn to Jason Terry (10.9 ppg., 4.9 assists per game), a former Franklin High school star in Seattle, quite possibly college basketball’s quickest player.

UW will counter with the 7-foot MacCulloch and 7-foot-1 Patrick Femerling. MacCulloch, the Pac-10’s leading scorer (20.1) and rebounder (9.9 rebounds per game), can use today’s game as a platform for more national attention. Femerling broke through a mild slump with an 11-point, 12-rebound performance Thursday against Arizona State.

“They create a lot of problems with the tremendous size inside,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said of the Huskies. “That’s right now our No. 1 weakness.”

Femerling and MacCulloch will match up with 6-11 A.J. Bramlett (11.1 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and 6-8 Bennett Davison (8.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg), a pair of long, lean athletes. The Wildcats also bring 6-6 Eugene Edgerson (4.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg) off the bench, but are without 6-11 Donnell Harris, who is still recovering from gall bladder surgery and sprained a tendon in his foot last Tuesday and did not make the trip.

If the Wildcats double down on the Huskies’ big men, Watts and Luton could hold the key to Washington’s success. Over the past three games, all UW victories, MacCulloch, Luton and Watts combined for 70 percent of the team’s offense.

“Watts and Luton are shooting it real well right now,” Terry said. “We have to be ready.”

Actually, Washington has been known to strike a little fear in Arizona. After losing 10 consecutive games to the Wildcats from 1986 to 1990, the Huskies have won five meetings since 1991, including last season’s 92-88 victory in Hec Ed. Two years ago, UW won an overtime game in Tucson, and in 1994, Bob Bender’s first season at UW, the Huskies won 74-69.

“This game has been a good one here in Seattle,” Bender said. “But I think one thing that you have to remind yourself is that every year is a new year.”