Stoudamire the straw that stirs 'Cats' success

ROSEMONT, Ill. — When Salim Stoudamire asked Channing Frye if he wanted to grab lunch one day last fall, the Arizona center was, to be perfectly honest, stunned.

Stoudamire didn't do lunch with his teammates. Or anything else, for that matter. He wasn't one for small talk. You wouldn't find him hanging out in someone's dorm room or apartment playing video games. And if you saw some of the Wildcats around town, there was no reason to look for Stoudamire because he wouldn't be with them.

He was a loner, and he liked it that way.

"I'm an independent person," he said Friday. "But I knew it was important for me to open up to my teammates so they could develop trust in me and I could develop trust in them."

As complex personally as he is gifted athletically, Stoudamire realized he needed an attitude adjustment if Arizona was going to live up to its potential. The change hasn't been easy, but Stoudamire has blossomed as a person and a teammate, and he's got the now-tightknit Wildcats where they always thought they should be.

The third-seeded Wildcats (30-6) will play top-seeded Illinois (35-1) tonight in the Chicago Regional, hoping to earn their first trip to the Final Four since 2001.

"I've played on a lot of teams, but this is by far the best chemistry-ed team I think I've ever been on," Frye said. "I don't know if that's the right word, but you can mix and match every single person on the team, and no one would have a problem with each other.

"Everyone just likes each other's company," Frye said, "and every day it's very interesting."

There was never any questioning of Stoudamire's talent. He comes from Portland's first family of basketball; his father and two uncles played at Portland State, brother Antoine played at Georgetown and Oregon, and cousin Damon is now playing for the Trail Blazers after an All-American career at Arizona. Salim Stoudamire is the career leading scorer in Oregon Class 4A history, with 2,219 points. He leads the nation with 51 percent shooting from 3-point range, and he made an off-balance dazzler with Daniel Bobik in his face to lift Arizona to a 79-78 victory over Oklahoma State on Thursday night.

"That dude's like a video game," Illinois guard Dee Brown said. "He shoots from anywhere, anyplace."

But his attitude? Well, that was something else.

An intensely private person, he never bonded with his teammates. When coach Lute Olson criticized him, Stoudamire would internalize it, growing even more remote. If he was struggling with his shot, he couldn't let it go and focus on defense or helping his teammates. He'd sulk and mope, making his struggles even worse.