Why not Arizona? In this headless horse race of a college season, there's no reason to think a sleeper like the Wildcats can't tear up the brackets come March - University of Arizona's basketball team

Basketball Digest, March, 2002 by Tom Kertes

One factor has to be the overall level of talent being down--college hoops is quite dehydrated this season. With the possible exception of Duke--and we're not even sure about that--every top team is tremendously beatable.

But by this bunch?

"With all our bad luck, we remained very lucky in one sense," Olson says. "Jason Gardner was our one guy who did come back."

Not without being dragged by a team of horses, though. Feeling deserted--Arenas and Jefferson were his two best friends--the outstanding 5'10" sophomore point guard went to all the NBA camps and then some. But he did not get himself an agent. So after performing at a mediocre level and taking his mother's advice, the door was still `open for a return to the team. Gardner walked back through.

"Thank God for Mom," Olson smiles. "She was very insistent about Jason staying in school. And then the kid and I had quite a conversation as well."

"I told him every point guard we've had here over the past 10 years--Khalid Reeves, Jason Terry, Mike Bibby, and Damon Stoudamire--was picked in the NBA lottery. But only Bibby was ready to do that as a sophomore. So what do you gain by leaving now? What's the rush?"

Gardner listened and understood. And, instead of sulking, he fully embraced the idea of becoming The Man on this team of obscure kids. "He has to be our leader as a scorer, passer--and off the floor as well--due to the makeup of this team," Olson says. "And he's been unbelievably good on all those counts."

Still, no 5'10" waterbug is going to turn a bunch of nobodies into a national contender. Not even Gardner, certainly not by himself. However, as it usually seems to happen with this always-premier program under its exceptional white-haired coach, it turned out that the basketball gods were smiling at the Wildcats in several other small, almost unnoticeable, ways.

Walton is a superbly smart basketball player who's simply overloaded with subtle, making-everyone-around-him-better skills. "The stuff he does, you can't teach," 0lson says. "Or maybe he learned to be such an unbelievable plus-player from his dad. I know it didn't come from me."

Even better, the voluble Walton is a super-nice guy, "a natural leader everyone likes and everyone gravitates to," Olson says. So, with the two juniors being such outstanding human beings, as well as surprisingly effective players, this seemingly talent-thin, too-youthful team is actually enjoying tremendous leadership both on and off the floor.

"They're our rocks," Olson says. "For us to play at our top level, those two guys must be out there."

Turns out the third junior, 6'9" forward Rick Anderson, is another high-potential sleeper. "He can't take the same leadership role with the young kids because we redshirted him," Olson says. "But he's already our best perimeter shooter. And a very gifted all-around player." Why redshirt such an outstanding talent? "Because he wasn't going to get many minutes last year with all those NBA guys playing in front of him," Olson smiles. "And that was going to hinder his development toward the NBA Rick understood that."