TUCSON, Ariz. -- The Arizona Wildcats got the No. 1 seed in the West, but along with it came the news that they apparently will be without 7-foot-1 center Loren Woods for the NCAA tournament.
At least that's what Craig Thompson, chairman of the NCAA selection committee, said in a conference call with reporters."We were notified that Loren Woods would not play in the tournament," Thompson said.
Despite that prognosis, the selection committee still gave Arizona the West's top seed because of the Wildcats' 86-81 homecourt victory over Stanford last Thursday.
"We saw Arizona play Stanford without Loren Woods and beat them," Thompson said, "so there was a test there."
Arizona (26-6) will play Jackson State (17-15) of the Southwestern Athletic Conference on Thursday in Salt Lake City.
When told of Thompson's remarks, Arizona coach Lute Olson insisted he had not been told by doctors that the back injury that has sidelined Woods for the past five games would definitely keep him out of the tournament.
"That information has not reached me yet," Olson said. "(Team trainer) Ed Orr is right here and Ed certainly would have told me if he's gotten the final report from the doctors, unless somehow or another the committee had information directly from the doctors."
Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood is a member of the NCAA selection committee.
If Woods can't play, Olson said his young team will just have to do without him. Adversity is nothing new for the Wildcats, who went almost the entire Pac-10 season without forward Richard Jefferson because of a broken foot and has been hit with a number of defections, injuries and other setbacks.
"Our team knows that they lace 'em up and we'll play with whomever we have," Olson said.
Woods, a junior transfer from Wake Forest, has what has been described as a compression injury to a disk in his back. Doctors believe the injury occurred Feb. 12 at Washington State. Woods continued to play until the pain grew unbearable following Arizona's home victory over Southern California on Feb. 17. The Wildcats were 3-2 without their center, beating UCLA, Stanford and California at home but losing at Oregon State and Oregon.
Arizona finished tied with Stanford for the Pac-10 title but received the conference's automatic NCAA bid because it beat the Cardinal twice. Olson said anything but the No. 1 seed in the West would have been unfair to his team.
"I frankly didn't see any way they could not put our guys as the No. 1 seed in the West," Olson said, "particularly because we've played so long without Loren Woods. We played and beat Stanford without him."
Jackson State earned the NCAA bid by rallying from a 14-point halftime deficit to beat Southern University 76-61 for the SWAC tournament title.