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Monday, March 26, 2001
Woods is anything but a stiff
Arizona big man comes through in the clutch
By Matt Young
Caller-Times
SAN ANTONIO - After Loren Woods managed to play a half of basketball without making a basket or grabbing a single rebound, the naysayers snickered, "Same old sorry 7-footer."
   When he bounced back in the second half with 16 points and five rebounds, the naysayers still insisted, "Well, he's still sorry."
   Such is the life of 7-foot-1 Loren Woods.
   He played a big part in helping Arizona outlast Illinois 87-81 and putting the Wildcats back in the Final Four, but to most people, Woods will still personify wasted potential. After Woods' freshman season at Wake Forest, he was being looked upon as the next Tim Duncan. Now, after a transfer to Arizona and his collegiate career almost complete, Woods seems like nothing more than a skinnier Michael Olowokandi.
   All of this makes Woods an easy target for abuse.
   The San Antonio newspaper ran a column Sunday declaring Woods as basically a waste of seven feet. One line in the column called Woods a stiff, which made the big fella laugh.
   "Stiff?," Woods said. "I mean come on, who really thinks I'm stiff? Flexibility is one of the strongest points of my game, so I'm obviously not stiff."
   Uh . . . Loren, stiff is a word used to describe big men who can't play. Will Perdue is a stiff. Chuck Nevitt was a stiff. And, although you may be able to do the splits for all we know, some people say Loren Woods is stiffer than both.
   "Oh, if that's what it means then I still don't believe it," Woods said. "People can write what they want to write. All I know is that I'm going to the Final Four. So, whoever wrote that can come follow me next week and write the same story at the Final Four."
   After a decent junior season where he averaged 15.6 points and 7.5 rebounds, Woods publicly discussed skipping his senior season and declaring himself eligible for the NBA draft. A year later, Woods' scoring and rebounding has taken a precipitous dip, making his talk of being ready for the NBA seem humorous. Not quite as humorous however as Illinois' fans, who heckled Woods with a chant of "CBA" every time he stepped to the free-throw line.
   "Yeah, I could hear them," Woods said. "It was pretty funny. Not true, but pretty funny anyway. Hey, I might go to the CBA, who knows. I'd probably be the first pick in the CBA draft, I'll tell you that much for sure. Tell those fans that I'll probably go ahead and try out for the NBA for a little while, just in case."
   If former Connecticut stiff Jake Voskuhl can play in the NBA, then Woods will surely earn a spot in the league as well, but he will never be able to live up to his hyped up potential.
   However, for about 20 minutes Sunday, Woods showed flashes of why he was supposed to be so good. He turned away every Illinois drive in the paint, finishing with seven blocks. He also showed a nice touch for a big man, knocking down 12 of 13 free throws.
   "Look, I know I played a horrible 20 or 25 minutes, no one has to tell me that, because I'm my harshest critic," Woods said. "What I'd like people to realize is that I wasn't horrible for the whole game. I feel like I came back in the last half, especially the last 10 minutes of the game, and played pretty well."
   As Woods sat in his locker stall after the game, he ripped some tape off his ankle, wadded it up and threw it at a nearby trash can. The ball of tape fell short.
   "Come on big fella, you got to make that," Arizona's backup center Eugene Edgerson cracked.
   Woods shook his head and gave his teammate an "Et tu, Eugene?," sort of look.
   "Yeah, you're right, I'm terrible," Woods said.
   Such is the life of Loren Woods.


Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com

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