Arizona blossomed once quiet Stoudamire opened up

When Salim Stoudamire asked Channing Frye if he wanted to grab lunch one day last fall, the Arizona center was stunned.

Stoudamire didn’t do lunch with his teammates. Or anything else, for that matter. He wasn’t one for small talk. You wouldn’t find him hanging out in someone’s dorm room or apartment, playing video games. If you saw some of the Wildcats around town, there was no reason to look for Stoudamire because he wouldn’t be with them.

He was a loner, and liked it that way.

“I’m an independent person,” he said Friday. “But I knew it was important for me to open up to my teammates so they could develop trust in me and I could develop trust in them.”

Stoudamire realized he needed an attitude adjustment if Arizona were going to live up to its potential. The change hasn’t been easy, but Stoudamire has blossomed as a person and a teammate, and he has the now-tightknit Wildcats where they always thought they should be.

The third-seeded Wildcats (30-6) will play top-seeded Illinois (35-1) tonight in the Chicago Regional at Rosemont, Ill., hoping to earn their first trip to the Final Four since 2001.

“I’ve played on a lot of teams, but this is by far the best ‘chemistry-ed’ team I think I’ve ever been on,” Frye said. “I don’t know if that’s the right word, but you can mix and match every single person on the team and no one would have a problem with each other.”

There was never any questioning of Stoudamire’s talent. He comes from Portland’s first family of basketball; his father and two uncles played at Portland State, brother Antoine played at Georgetown and Oregon, and cousin Damon is playing for the Trail Blazers after an All-American career at Arizona.

Louisville vs. West Virginia

The forward just got married. The little-known coach spent 25 years scratching his way to the top. All West Virginia players concede they’re just thrilled to be riding a wave that could take their program to a place it hasn’t been since the days of Jerry West.

Standing in their way is Rick Pitino, whose agenda isn’t nearly as quaint. If he leads Louisville to a win today in the Albuquerque (N.M.) Regional final, he’ll become the first coach to take three programs to the Final Four.

“I don’t think too much about that,” Pitino said. “It’s all happened so quickly, you don’t have time to think.”

The matchup between fourth-seeded Louisville (32-4) and seventh-seeded West Virginia (24-10) seems as lopsided as the vastly differing histories of the two programs.

The Cardinals have two national titles, seven trips to the Final Four and one of the best coaches in the game.

West Virginia has made it to the final once – 46 years ago behind West and coach Fred Schaus – barely sneaked into the tournament this year and is coached by John Beilein, whose resume includes stops at LeMoyne College, Canisius and Richmond.

Pitino isn’t going to be fooled.

“Any team that beats Wake Forest gets your attention right away,” he said of the team the Mountaineers knocked out in the second round.