UC coach Bob Huggins was pleased to see the Bearcats were interested enough in scouting Northern Arizona to request some videotape of the Lumberjacks for viewing Tuesday night.
Guard D'Juan Baker said he picked up one little trick NAU uses on opponents: ''The first option is not always the option they're looking for.''
Baker said the Lumberjacks often run plays that look as though they are designed to produce a particular shot, when in fact that is a decoy designed to lure the defense into thinking it has broken down the set.
Northern Arizona's players admitted they must flawlessly execute their offense to score against a Bearcats defense that ranks 12th in the nation in field goal percentage.
''We have a lot of offensive sets to get us open looks,'' said NAU forward Andrew Mavis, ''and they're not going to be able to go through every single one.''
NCAA foes
In UC's 10 games against teams that reached the NCAA Tournament, the Bearcats are 7-3.
Last year's Bearcats were 4-4 against the field as the tournament began.
One step up
A year ago at this time, Northern Arizona was preparing for a trip to Bud Walton Arena to play Arkansas in the NIT. Now, the Lumberjacks are preparing for a neutral-court game against a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Which does NAU coach Ben Howland find more daunting? ''They're both great challenges,'' Howland said, ''because they're very good teams, programs that are there every year. We're excited to be where we are now.'' Praising UC
Howland has been defeated before by UC, although he never coached a game against the Bearcats.
When he was an assistant under Jerry Pimm at Cal-Santa Barbara in the early 1990s, Howland tried to recruit future Bearcats Corie Blount and Erik Martin.
Howland had plenty of praise for this UC squad.
''They might be the hottest team of anyone in the country . . . I think it's the most athletic team in the field of 64. What athletes!''
Double workouts
UC chose to use only about 40 minutes of the alotted hour for public practice at the BSU Pavilion. Huggins said the Bearcats went 2ï hours earlier in the day at Capital High in Boise.
''I don't want to kill them,'' Huggins said.
Team players
Of the players who rank among the top 20 in the NCAA's major statistical categories, only Nebraska's Tyronn Lue (No. 20 in scoring, 21.3), and UC's Kenyon Martin (No. 12 in blocks, 2.7) are in Boise.
Tim Sullivan column
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