The Chase is on to be best in the Pac
ESPN.com
Here's the deal: Lute Olson is about to enter his 24th season as head basketball coach at Arizona. In that time, he has produced 31 NBA draft picks, including 12 first-rounders. He has also developed 30 All-Americans. Still, Olson has publicly stated freshman wing Chase Budinger -- yet to dribble a ball or take a shot for the Wildcats -- has a good chance of being the best prospect ever to play for him.
It's a list that includes Sean Elliott, Mike Bibby, Steve Kerr, Richard Jefferson and Gilbert Arenas. It's a list immensely long on talent and deep in achievement. It's a pretty darn intimidating list.
But the expectations on Budinger aren't the biggest deal.
This is: "Hopefully, I can go in there and make an impact and we can be better than last year," Budinger said. "If the chemistry is right and we play together, myself and a couple of the other new guys can help make it better than last season. I mean, that's one of the main reasons I wanted to go there, a place where 20 wins isn't good enough. That's the way it is. They're all about winning and know how to get it done. That's the way I am. Hopefully, we'll have closer to 30 wins."
It seems he has already learned one of the program's primary rules: At Arizona, attitude is as coveted as skill.
It is one of the few places where a 20-13 record and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament is considered average, one of the few programs that can finish 11-7 in the Pac-10 and search for vast improvement, one of the few teams that can overcome a vicious schedule to give a No. 1 NCAA seed (Villanova) playing in its own city all it wants and more and still be greatly disappointed.
"That's the standard by which our program is measured," Olson said. "We won 20 games last year against the toughest schedule of anybody in our league and there were still some wondering whether we'd get into the [NCAAs]. The schedule is just as tough this year. We have never ducked people."
Any ducking last season might have been to avoid being hit in the head with all the missed shots. The Wildcats didn't find the hoop all that well (45 percent from the field, 32 percent on 3s), a major reason they finished fourth in a league that sent one team (UCLA) to the NCAA title game.
Olson is convinced he has discovered the remedy for such a troubling issue, assured he can turn bricks into baskets by mixing old and new into a team good enough to reach the second week of the NCAAs and perhaps beyond.
He believes he can toughen his side enough to again rule the Pac-10 by playing a nonconference schedule that includes neutral-court games against Illinois and Louisville, road contests at Virginia and San Diego State and home matchups with Memphis and North Carolina.
He feels that all the stars are aligned this time.
Jawann McClellan played just 45 minutes last year due to academic and injury issues, certainly not the prescribed time for the player Olson felt would lead his team in scoring -- and possibly rebounding. But now Olson can team his 6-foot-4 junior guard with other capable shooters in the McDonald's All-American Budinger, freshman guard Nic Wise and sophomore wing Marcus Williams (the team's top returning 3-point shooter at 45 percent). Olson can put a lot more offense around point guard Mustafa Shakur and forward Ivan Radenovic, seniors who last year shot just 43 and 46 percent, respectively.
Still, no matter how critical it was that Shakur and Williams chose to bypass the NBA draft and return to school, no matter how much talent and experience and how many sparkling resumes fill the roster, the topic of how good Arizona can ultimately be almost always returns to the 6-8 Budinger.
He shattered the San Diego section career scoring records with 2,930 points, averaging 32.8 points and 10.5 rebounds per game as a senior for La Costa Canyon High and going for 50 points in a CIF Division I final.
Did we mention he was named the California prep athlete of the year? Did we also mention he was the national prep volleyball player of the year?
"The thing that most impresses me about Chase is that scoring really isn't that important to him," Olson said. "He was the [co-]MVP of the McDonald's game and only scored [11 points]. You don't see that often. But he can handle the ball, pass like a point guard, gets more excited about a teammate scoring than himself.
"He's not as tough on the glass as he will be because things came almost too easy for him in high school. I think he has a chance to be an unbelievable defender. He has great lateral movement and quickness because of his volleyball skills.
"[Starting] positions aren't given here or based on reputation. They're earned on the court every day in practice. It will be up to Chase and his teammates to compete against one another. But we've obviously had some outstanding freshmen play important roles for us. Veterans get a chance to hold onto spots, but if someone comes in and is better, then that's part of the scene here. Every player understands it."
It's not likely that Budinger will ever be in jeopardy of losing his spot as a veteran. Part of that is it's not likely, health willing, that he will be in Tucson to ever boast of upperclass status.
There were several predraft projections that considered him a first-round pick had he been eligible to skip college. It's not a new concept for Olson, the idea that the window of opportunity to coach such a talented player shuts sooner and sooner nowadays.
"Once they come here, we need to count on them for two years," he said. "I think Chase will be ready for [the NBA] after one year, but I also think he is a kid who would want that extra year of maturity in college. I also think his parents would want that for him."
So here's the deal: The kid is really, really good. With him, Arizona is, too.
-- Ed Graney
