No. 4 ‘Zona In A Zone

Arizona restored order to the Pac-10 with its humbling of previously unbeaten Stanford last week, leaving the Wildcats as clear favorites to end UCLA’s three-year hold on the conference championship.

“Stanford had a better record than us and people were trying to hype the game up,” Arizona point guard Mike Bibby said, “but we’re the national champions. People gotta knock us off.”

At 9-0 in the Pac-10, 4th-ranked Arizona has a two-game lead over UCLA and Stanford, both 7-2. The Wildcats are 2-0 against the Cardinal and Bruins.

Stanford, which had been 18-0 before getting swept at home by Arizona and Arizona State last week, defeated Cal 74-72 Wednesday night. The No. 9 Cardinal travel to No. 7 Connecticut for a Saturday morning game on CBS. The UConn game is set for 9 a.m. PST, meaning Stanford will be waking up around 5 a.m.

From there, the Cardinal fly back to the West Coast for a Feb. 15 road game against No. 8 UCLA.

Around the conference

The overstatement of the week comes from ASU guard Ahlon Lewis, after beating Stanford: “A top five team - we feel like we’re top five now.” In the Pac-10? … Understatement of the week, from WSU coach Kevin Eastman: “What we’re running into is actually just teams that are better than us.” … Understatement No. 2, from Arizona assistant Jim Rosborough: “If we play well, I can’t deny that we aren’t a fairly capable team.”

Former WSU recruit Ron Selleaze, who was averaging 18 points per game for BYU three weeks ago, is averaging 11.7 over his last six games. The price of supporting that extended family, no doubt… . Washington is ranked 31st according to the Ratings Percentage Index, but the Huskies may not make the NCAA Tournament without a victory over either Arizona, UCLA or Stanford. “We need to get a win that will be noticed,” center Todd MacCulloch acknowledged. The Huskies visit Arizona tonight… . While Washington guard Deon Luton was hitting 6 of 10 3-pointers in the first half of last week’s win at USC, teammate Donald Watts took exactly zero shots. That prompted some ribbing from USC guard Gary Johnson. “No. 4 is taking all your shots, isn’t he?” Johnson said. Watts had the last laugh, hitting all five second-half 3-point attempts en route to 22 points.

Tremaine Fowlkes, the Cal castoff from the Todd Bozeman era, is having trouble at Fresno State. The recent suspensions of Fowlkes and Avondre Jones, for unspecified disciplinary reasons, mean that eight of coach Jerry Tarkanian’s 10 scholarship players have missed games because they were either suspended, in rehab, ineligible or quit. Surprise, surprise… . Cal coach Ben Braun was only joking last week when he hinted that Tony Gonzalez, the former power forward and current NFL tight end, might be suiting up for the Bears against ASU. The comment was taken seriously by a Phoenix radio station, however, sending the Sun Devils into a brief panic. Gonzalez does have one year of eligibility remaining as a basketball player, but he would have to enroll full time at the school.

No Pac-10 team has gone undefeated in conference play. Seven teams, including Arizona this year, have started 9-0. Five of those lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament… . Cal will keep playing in Oakland next season, thanks to an increase in steel prices that has caused a three-month delay in the construction of Haas Pavilion. The Bears had hoped to open the rebuilt version of Harmon Gym in time for next season’s Pac-10 opener… . In addition to playing up to four freshmen at a time, USC has one of the nation’s highest-rated recruiting classes for next season.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: AREA LEADERS Scoring Player, school FG-FGA FT-FTA 3pt Avg. Avery Curry, UI 125-278 83-113 25 19.9 Bakari Hendrix, GU 151-278 98-132 2 18.3 Carlos Daniel, WSU 126-255 92-140 1 17.3 Karim Scott, EWU 123-223 43-65 9 16.6 Jovann Johnson, NIC 58-126 60-88 3 16.3 Matt Santangelo, GU 124-248 63-81 49 15.7 Ben Heimerman, Whwth 46-63 45-50 4 15.7 Johnny Goodman, NIC 105-218 31-42 41 14.8 Nathaniel Bailey, NIC 104-250 61-96 26 14.0 Jeff Mix, Whwth 86-167 39-59 2 13.3 Shannon Taylor, EWU 76-205 39-61 39 12.8 Chris Crosby, WSU 91-208 36-52 36 12.7 Richie Frahm, GU 91-187 38-49 48 12.2 Steven Ryan, NIC 78-171 89-118 3 11.8 Ryan Nelson, Whwth 63-133 23-28 51 11.8

Rebounding Daniel, WSU, 9.9 (198); Heimerman, Whwth, 7.1 (64); Scott, EWU, 6.7 (120); Mix, Whwth, 6.6 (105); Hendrix, GU, 5.7 (126); Gray, UI, 5.7 (97); Ryan, NIC, 5.7 (120).

Assists Deon Williams, EWU, 6.0 (108); Blake Pengelly, WSU, 4.3 (85); Tyler Jordan, Whwth, 4.3 (76); Bailey, NIC, 4.2 (89); Santangelo, GU, 4.0.

Steals Bailey, NIC, 3.8 (80); Johnson, NIC, 3.2 (35); Goodman, NIC 2.6 (49); Scott, EWU, 2.1 (37); Curry, UI, 2.0 (36). Note: CCS statistics were not available

Schedule Today: WSU at Arizona State, 5:30 p.m.; Idaho State at EWU, 7:05 p.m.; North Texas at Idaho, 7:05 p.m.; Friday: NIC at Dixie, 6:30 p.m.; GU at Santa Clara, 7:30 p.m.; Whitworth at Pacific, 8 p.m. Saturday: WSU at Arizona, 5:37 p.m.; NIC at Snow, 6:30 p.m.; GU at San Francisco, 7 p.m.; Cal State Sacramento at EWU, 7:05 p.m.; New Mexico State at Idaho, 7:05 p.m.; Wenatchee Valley vs. CSS at SCC, 8 p.m.; Whitworth at Linfield, 8 p.m. Tuesday: CCS at NIC, 7:30 p.m.; Whitman at Whitworth, 8 p.m.

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