Wildcat season officially tips tomorrow

Prior to each exhibition contest this season, the Arizona Wildcats had a message they wanted to get across.

“Sixty NBA draft picks. Twenty-four consecutive tournament appearances. Twenty-four Pac-10 championships. Four Final-Four appearances. The 1997 National Championship.”

These phrases accompany the tightly edited highlights package as part of the McKale Center’s pre-game introductions. Interim head coach Russ Pennell and the current crop of Wildcats want to make sure fans and opponents remember this is an elite basketball program, with a resum/ that stands alongside any other program in the nation — even if the architect of that resum/ is no longer involved.

Since Lute Olson’s retirement on Oct. 23, Wildcat basketball has tirelessly attempted to re-establish its identity. Pennell and his crew — assistants Mike Dunlap, Reggie Geary and Matt Brase, along with new director of basketball operations Dewey Pennell — decided the best way to dictate this program’s future would be to remind folks where it has been.

“The University of Arizona is still a premiere program,” Pennell said when he took over for Olson three weeks ago. “It means something to be a Wildcat.”

Olson’s sudden retirement obviously sent shockwaves throughout the program. A Hall-of-Famer and a coaching icon, Olson is synomyous with the quarter-century of basketball success in Tucson.

The remaining Wildcats have been forced to undergo a rather jolting transition process — a process that hasn’t been without its bumps in the road.

How have these young student-athletes been able to deal with all of these outside distractions and focus on tomorrow’s season debut against Florida Atlantic in the Preseason NIT?

Hit the gym, of course.

“This is a mature, dedicated group of basketball players,” Pennell said.

The preseason polls have the Wildcats predicted to finish fourth in the Pac-10, behind perennial power UCLA, a resurgent Arizona State program and the high-flying USC Trojans.

ESPN.com’s resident “bracketologist” Joe Lunardi says the Wildcats will add to their record tournament streak — securing a No. 10 seed in his preseason bracket.

Pennell said his players have a loftier goal in mind.

“They want to win a conference championship,” Pennell said.

Judging from the squad’s two exhibition games — a 97-83 win over Incarnate Word on Nov. 6 and a 78-54 win over Sonoma State this past Wednesday — a conference title might be out of their reach, but the Wildcats certainly feature enough talent to put up a fight against anybody.

Jordan Hill has been the team’s most impressive performer thus far, averaging 26.5 points and 12 rebounds per game, along with an eye-popping 70.4 field goal percentage.

He’s cut down on those silly fouls that kept his minutes down last season and appears to have a reliable 18-foot jump shot in his arsenal now.

In the first half against Sonoma State, Hill played one of his best all-around stretches, scoring 21 points and grabbing eight rebounds on 6-6 shooting. Of course, the competition wasn’t exactly the most fearsome he’ll face this season, but Pennell was encouraged by Hill’s “intelligent aggressiveness.”

On the downside, Chase Budinger has struggled mightly early on, hitting only five of his 19 field-goal attempts in these two games — not a good sign from a player expected to take between 30 and 40 percent of his team’s shots.

“We’ve told Chase that these are just practice games. Forget them and move on,” Pennell said. “He’s so valuable to our team in ways other than scoring.”

Nic Wise — the third member of the squad’s “Big Three” — recovered well from a serious gash on his eyebrow he suffered against UIW to score 16 points in 19 minutes against Sonoma State.

Jamelle Horne appears ready to step into that No. 4 scoring option, showing much more comfort from the perimeter than he did under Kevin O’Neill last season.

Freshman guards Kyle Fogg (the steady one) and Garland Judkins (the flashy one) will add backcourt depth, and burly forward Fendi Onobun looks to be healthy from a myriad of injuries that plagued his sophomore and junior seasons to help Hill on the interior.

Pennell said that in the second half of the Sonoma State game, the officials told the coaches they haven’t seen too many teams appear to have this much fun playing together — a far cry from the squad’s attitude during the one-year Kevin O’Neill experiement.

“I feel like our team is starting to take shape,” Pennell said. “We still have a long way to go, but I like where we’re at and I love how are kids are playing together. There is no bad body language and there is no eye-rolling.”

Tomorrow night’s Preseason NIT opener against Florida Atlantic tips off at 9 p.m. at McKale Center. If the Wildcats win, they will face the winner of the University of Alabama-Birmingham versus Santa Clara contest on Tuesday night.

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747

Details

Who: Arizona versus Florida Atlantic

What: Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off

When: Monday, 9 p.m.

Where: McKale Center, Tucson.

TV: ESPNU.