Sports

Shooting stars don't fly on their own at UA

Lute Olson's decision to suspend Salim Stoudamire on Saturday at Marquette confirmed what we already knew: No UA basketball player is bigger than Olson's program. The it's-all-about-me approach has yet to fly in the Olson years. The list of once-suspended Wildcats is a Who's Who of Arizona basketball. Take a deep breath and try to follow the list of Olson-benched ex-Wildcats: Sean Rooks, Eugene Edgerson, Wayne Womack, Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Will Bynum - (whew, still with me?) - Ben Davis, Loren Woods, Morgan Taylor, Pete Williams, Michael Tait, Donnell Harris, Rolf Jacobs, Jason Gardner, Miles Simon, Joseph Blair. And that list was compiled without diligent research. Olson has suspended players - from stars to subs - for every imaginable basketball sin. Academic malfeasance, horseplay in a hotel, missing curfew, missing a meeting, missing a court date, elbowing a teammate, elbowing an opponent, general immaturity and general goofiness. The coach, let's remember, has often been working with some very tall kids. He has never been reluctant to employ the this-is-going-to-hurt-the-team-more-than-it-hurts-you penalty. If nothing else, Olson has been consistent in his application of discipline, often a forgotten concept in a millennium of free spirits and coaches who look the other way. Stoudamire is an unusual case inasmuch as he has twice been suspended for issues related to a cranky disposition. For the remainder of his college days, we can safely assume Salim is working on his third last chance. In some ways, Stoudamire has held the UA hostage, the school and its fans addicted to his remarkable ability to bail the Wildcats out of some unlikely jams. There was the night, as a freshman, he went for 29 against USC to win the Pac-10 tournament. We won't soon forget his 32-point career afternoon, as a sophomore, in a landmark victory at Kansas. He scored a magnificent 37 in a harrowing win at Oregon's Mac Court last year. But those of us who watch from the courtside seats, or on television, only get Stoudamire in 40-minute bursts. It is easy to dismiss his sourpuss countenance for the promise of another Big Night. Surely there will be a payoff someday in March, a milestone victory at just the right moment, with Salim the Shooter burying a three-pointer that punches Arizona's ticket to some happy place. Now, with time running short on Stoudamire's career, a more likely assumption is that the great day, Stoudamire to the rescue, will never arrive. What we'll never know is how difficult it has been for Olson and his staff, and especially the other Wildcats, to accompany Stoudamire day to day through the marathon of a college basketball season. Stoudamire was suspended this time not for breaking a rule but for breaking the spirit of a rule. His body language during and after a stressful victory over Utah suggested that Arizona was the loser. Rather than go forward with Salim the Sad, Olson made the most difficult of all game-week decisions. He limited his team's chances to win at undefeated Marquette - on national TV - by reserving Stoudamire a seat on the bench. The message had the subtlety of a fist in the face: If it means losing a game we could have won to improve the team's synergy, fine. How many coaches take that chance? It's not a big number. Surprisingly, Arizona won at Marquette, grinding out a 48-43 victory unfamiliar to Wildcat basketball. The Wildcats won with toughness rather than touch. Minus Stoudamire's participation, the message sent to every player on Olson's roster was clear: It's this way or the highway. Stoudamire received an altogether different message: You need us more than we need you. Whatever happens in the final three months of this season is far from predictable. This UA team projects as no one's Final Four team. It is obviously a runner-up choice to Washington in the Pac-10 race. It is likely to have extreme difficulty winning at Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and even Arizona State. Will Stoudamire make it to March as a member of the Wildcats? Given the history here, that's a risky assumption. What we do know is that Olson won't risk his team's togetherness to keep Stoudamire, or anyone, happy. On March 2, 1985, in a game at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, Olson had Arizona in position to win its first Pac-10 championship. The 11-5 Wildcats were to meet the 11-5 Bruins in a nationally televised game, one of the first of its kind in UA basketball history. At tipoff, two of Arizona's leading players, seniors Pete Williams and Morgan Taylor, were on the bench. Both had lost their starting spots for failure to meet a team obligation a day earlier. Arizona lost 58-54, missing a Pac-10 championship by one game. Now, 20 years later, Salim Stoudamire is on the bench. So much for Olson, at 70, getting soft.