Stanford-Arizona Matchup Figures to Be an Inside Job

Amid the hubbub of the Rose Bowl, unbeaten Stanford has worn its No. 1 ranking rather quietly--just the way Coach Mike Montgomery likes it.

The attention turns to basketball as conference play begins this week, and there is a doozy of a game Saturday: No. 1 Stanford plays No. 5 Arizona at Maples Pavilion.

Things are a little different from last season.

The Jason Terry-Arthur Lee duels are over. Saturday’s game will be about front lines and freshmen.

Arizona has added Wake Forest transfer Loren Woods--a 7-foot-1 shot blocker and solid scorer--to the tandem of Michael Wright and Richard Jefferson, both impressive as freshmen.

“Jefferson, Wright and Woods are probably as good a front line as there is in college basketball,” Montgomery said.

The Wildcats have to contend for the first time with the Collins twins, Jarron and Jason, as well as Mark Madsen, the ferocious rebounder who is back after missing eight games because of a hamstring injury.

And then there’s Stanford’s Casey Jacobsen, a 6-6 swingman who is among the nation’s top freshmen and is leading Stanford in scoring.

Arizona (11-2) has its talented freshmen, guards Gilbert Arenas and Jason Gardner.

Their teammates are trying to prepare them for the trembling confines of Maples.

“Coming in as a freshman, I was kind of amazed at how the crowd would shake the floor and taunt us,” Wright said. “I have told them that this is going to be a completely different atmosphere than the neutral-court games or playing at home. They’re fast learners, so I think they are going to know what to expect.”

Apparently they’re going to have to see it with their eyes--and feel it with their feet--as they bring the ball upcourt.

“I think this is going to be a lot of fun,” Gardner said.

Arizona’s weakness is lack of depth. The Wildcats have only eight scholarship players fit to play, so foul trouble could be devastating, as could losing any more players, even to a short-term injury.

Stanford needs to stay out of a running game--and avoid slipping against Arizona State and high-scoring Eddie House on Thursday--though Montgomery wants to believe his team has learned that lesson from the Sun Devils before.

PUT ME IN, COACH

He might not get into the game, but Arizona reserve guard Josh Pastner’s head is always in the game.

An aspiring coach who functions almost as a fourth assistant, Pastner has no doubts about his future, and even has been head coach of an Amateur Athletic Union team the last four summers. Although Pastner is capable, that raises a question about who is allowed to coach AAU teams, given the potential recruiting issues in the wake of the Myron Piggie investigation.

But back to basketball.

Pastner’s take on Arizona-Stanford?

“I’m going to guess Stanford will try to bang us down low and move us away from the blocks and try to put pressure on our guards,” he said.

On the Wildcats’ Woods:

“I personally feel he’s the best center in the country. He’s a shot blocker like Bill Russell: He keeps the ball in bounds.”

On the effect of Madsen’s return on Stanford: “A player like Madsen is such an inspiration. He can dominate a game without scoring points. Sometimes a guy comes back and it throws off the mix, the way it took us awhile to get back in the flow the year we lost Miles Simon and then he came back. But Madsen would never unbalance a team.”

And on Arizona’s freshman guards’ first trip to Maples: “Sometimes it’s more that they don’t know any better. They have relentless confidence and their minds don’t play tricks on them. . . . When we won the [National Invitation Tournament], guys like me really understand what it means to play in Madison Square Garden. They just came out and played, and didn’t play like freshmen at all.”

If Pastner’s basketball banter alone doesn’t convince you he has the makings of a coach, listen to his answering-machine message. It proves he has one common qualification: the gift of self-promotion.

“Hello, this is Josh Pastner. I’m currently at the gym working players out, or I’m breaking some film down on how to attack that matchup zone defense.

“If you’re an NBA general manager or a college program looking for someone to fulfill your head-coaching spot, leave your number, I’m the man to hire.

“If you’re between 6-5 and 6-9 and your game resembles any of Larry Bird’s, leave your number, and I’ll get back to you faster than Michael Jordan can beat you going to the basket. . . . “

Pastner is already widely known among college coaches, and Montgomery, for one, said he wasn’t concerned about any recruiting issues with Pastner coaching an AAU team.

“It might give somebody an advantage if they got anybody off that team,” he said.

Arizona didn’t.

“At the same time, I think Pastner is a very ambitious young man who wants to go into coaching and has taken full advantage of the opportunity to get involved.”

HE’S BACK

Mateen Cleaves, the popular preseason pick for player of the year, finally makes his season debut tonight against Penn State in Michigan State’s Big Ten opener.

Not a minute too soon.

Without Cleaves--who missed the Spartans’ first 13 games after undergoing foot surgery in October--the Spartans wrapped up an otherwise respectable nonconference season with a loss to Wright State, a team that was 3-8.

Don’t count on Cleaves instantly lifting the 11th-ranked Spartans (9-4) back to their Final Four form of last season, however.

He won’t start tonight, and is expected to play only about 15 minutes.

“He’s not going to shoot the ball as well for a while; his timing is going to be off,” Coach Tom Izzo said. “He seems to be able to run up and down pretty good, but laterally, sometimes he can’t push off quite as well as I think he wants to or needs to.”

The challenge for Cleaves, a flashy passer with a sometimes erratic shot, will be to keep his game under control.

“I try to make passes I did two months ago. . . . I’m not ready for that,” Cleaves told reporters. “I’ve got to keep it simple.”

IN THE MEANTIME . . .

While Cleaves was on the mend, Cincinnati’s Kenyon Martin made a credible early case for the Wooden Award.

“If he’s not the best player in the country right now, I don’t know who is,” said Cincinnati Coach Bob Huggins, whose team recently dealt Nevada Las Vegas a 40-point loss, 106-66, the Rebels’ worst since 1971.

A 6-9 senior, Martin has put up some scary statistics--such as 17 rebounds against St. Louis and nine blocked shots against Iowa State.

His averages of almost 17 points and nine rebounds as well as 2.8 blocks and 1.5 assists are all the more impressive because he shares the court with two other probable first-round draft picks, Pete Mickeal and freshman DerMarr Johnson.

One catch, however, is that Martin didn’t play very well after February last season, finishing with averages of only 10 points and seven rebounds.

“Kenyon really could make shots last year, he just didn’t put himself in the position to,” Huggins said. “He did early, and he kind of stopped. He’s just so much more assertive now.”