#ThrowbackThursday: 1989-90 Pac-10 Champions
Jun 11, 2020
TUCSON, Ariz. – The fourth installment of our #ThrowbackThursday series takes a look at the 1989-90 team that was co-champion of the Pac-10 regular season and went on to win the conference tournament as well before falling to Alabama in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
During the regular season, the Wildcats were named Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic Champions after defeating Michigan in Springfield, Mass., and wins over Penn State and Purdue in the Fiesta Bowl Classic gave them that title as well.
Below is a look at the roster, season results and more from that team.
1987-88 Arizona Basketball Roster
| # | Name | Year | Pos. | Ht. | PPG |
| 35 | Jud Buechler | Sr. | F | 6-6 | 14.9 |
| 24 | Matt Muehlebach | Jr. | G | 6-2 | 11.3 |
| 12 | Matt Othick | So. | G | 6-2 | 8.7 |
| 45 | Sean Rooks | So. | C | 6-11 | 12.7 |
| 44 | Harvey Mason | Sr. | G | 6-3 | 4.0 |
| 30 | Wayne Womack | So. | F | 6-8 | 6.8 |
| 34 | Brian David | Sr. | C | 6-9 | 2.4 |
| 21 | Brian Williams | So. | F | 6-11 | 10.6 |
| 41 | Ed Stokes | Fr. | C | 7-0 | 8.0 |
| 11 | Casey Schmidt | Fr. | G | 6-5 | 2.0 |
1987-88 Season Results
| Won 25, Lost 7 | |||
| Coach: Lute Olson | |||
| Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic Champions | |||
| Valley Bank Fiesta Bowl Classic Champions | |||
| Pacific-10 Conference Co-Champions | |||
| Pac-10 Conference Tournament Champions | |||
| NCAA Tournament Participants | |||
| N25 | Michigan (1) | W | 82-75 |
| N30 | *at Oregon | L | 63-68 |
| D2 | *at Oregon State | L | 61-84 |
| D6 | Northern Arizona | W | 84-37 |
| D19 | Miami, Fla. | W | 83-53 |
| D28 | Penn State (2) | W | 74-55 |
| D30 | Purdue (2) | W | 85-66 |
| J2 | *California (ot) | W | 71-70 |
| J4 | *Washington | W | 65-51 |
| J6 | *Washington State | W | 81-61 |
| J11 | *at USC | W | 90-75 |
| J13 | *at UCLA | L | 67-73 |
| J17 | *at Arizona State | W | 70-61 |
| J20 | Oklahoma | W | 78-74 |
| J25 | *Stanford | W | 68-61 |
| J27 | at Pittsburgh | L | 92-100 |
| F1 | *at Washington State | W | 86-62 |
| F3 | *at Washington | W | 75-60 |
| F8 | *USC | W | 95-70 |
| F10 | *UCLA | W | 83-74 |
| F15 | *Arizona State | W | 71-50 |
| F18 | at Nevada-Las Vegas | L | 87-95 |
| F21 | *at California | W | 93-68 |
| F23 | *at Stanford | W | 80-61 |
| F25 | at Duke | L | 76-78 |
| M1 | *Oregon | W | 84-58 |
| M3 | *Oregon State | W | 87-60 |
| M9 | USC (3) | W | 80-57 |
| M10 | Stanford (3) | W | 85-61 |
| M11 | UCLA (3) | W | 94-78 |
| M16 | South Florida (4) | W | 79-67 |
| M18 | Alabama (4) | L | 55-77 |
| * Pacific-10 Conference game (15-3, T1st) | |||
| (1) at Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic, Springfield, Mass. | |||
| (2) at Valley Bank Fiesta Bowl Classic, Tucson, Ariz. | |||
| (3) at Pac-10 Conference Tourn., Tempe, Ariz. | |||
| (4) at NCAA Tournament, Long Beach, Calif. | |||
Notes
- After starting the season with a win over No. 4 Michigan at the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass, the Wildcats went on the road in conference play (more on this below) for games two and three, suffering losses at Oregon and Oregon State to fall to 1-2. But they would quickly rebound to win the next eight on their way to a 25-7 overall record.
- Arizona finished the year ranked 14th in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and No. 12 in the UPI Top 25 poll.
- The 'Cats played Pac-10 conference games at Oregon (Nov. 30) and Oregon State (Dec. 2) to allow for the opportunity to play at UNLV on Feb. 18 and at Duke on Feb. 25 in the middle of conference play.
- As a team, the Wildcats blocked an average of 5.8 shots per game (185 total) while opponents blocked just 1.6 Arizona shots per game. Freshman Ed Stokes led the way with 1.7 blocked shots per game while Sean Rooks (1.6) and Brian Williams (1.3) were right behind. The 185 total blocked shots ranks second for a single season in UA history.
- Arizona also had three players with 129 or more assists on the season, led by Matt Muehlebach (181), Matt Othick (141) and Jud Buechler (129). The team's total of 585 assists ranks as the seventh-most in program history.
- Going along with the old adage that stated teams wanted to make more free throws than their opponents attempted, the Wildcats achieved this during the 1989-90 season. Arizona connected on 607 free throws while opponents attempted a total 603 free throws.
- Arizona was also a great shooting team, making 50.1 percent of their overall attempts, including 38.0 percent from the 3-point line.