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— Kevin O'Neill

The basketball gods so blessed Lute Olson that the only depleting injury of his first 16 seasons in Tucson turned out to be beneficial.

Forget that. It turned out to be poetry.

Steve Kerr sat out the entire 1986-87 season with a knee injury. His return for a fifth year made it possible for the '88 Arizona Wildcats to win 35 games, gain the nation's No. 1 ranking and burst into the Final Four.

Tucsonans wrote songs. Made videos. Held a parade.

"I didn't particularly enjoy going through the '87 season without Steve,'' Olson said. "But everything we accomplished a year later was made possible because of that injury.''

The scar across Kerr's knee became the flash point for 20 years of UA excellence.

As Arizona became the West's most prominent basketball school, potential Pac-10 contenders were taken apart by season-long injuries, some to all-conference players such as Ed O'Bannon, Leonard Taylor, Curtis Borchardt, Leon Powe, Mario Bennett and Jason Collins.

Arizona remained relatively injury-free.

The Wildcats were so healthy for so long that Olson's toughest personnel decision often was: Who sits for a few minutes at the start of Senior Day?

Indeed, in '88, Olson started Kerr, Sean Elliott, Tom Tolbert and Craig McMillan in all 38 games. Only Anthony Cook, who started 37, did not. He sat out the first six minutes of Senior Day while Joe Turner played.

Injuries? At Arizona, a "bad injury'' became Harvey Mason's messed up knee. Mason, a senior guard, missed nine midseason games, 1989-90. Olson's resources were such that he simply moved Matt Othick into the starting lineup.

Othick played so well (he had 46 assists and 55 points in the season's final five games) that the Wildcats rallied to tie Oregon State for the Pac-10 championship.

And now, shockingly, Arizona has all but been cursed by the basketball gods.

Nic Wise. Out perhaps for the rest of the season.

Jerryd Bayless. Out four games, three of them losses.

Fendi Onobun. Out during preseason camp and for eight formative games with shin splints.

Bret Brielmaier. Out indefinitely with shoulder problems.

Kirk Walters has been hurt. Jamelle Horne, too. Jordan Hill's shoulder aches.

For the first time in 24 years, Arizona has not had capable reinforcements to fill an injured teammate's spot. Never was it more manifest than in Sunday's 59-54 loss to a reeling Arizona State team.

Until this season, the Wildcats had so few injuries of significance that they are easily researched: They were:

● Point guard Brock Brunkhorst, knee, six games, 1984-85 midseason. Replacement: McMillan.

● Kerr, knee, entire 1986-87 season. Replacement: sophomore Kenny Lofton.

● Mason, knee, nine games, 1989-90 midseason. Replacement: Othick.

● Guard Miles Simon, finger, eight games, 1994-95 midseason. Replacement: junior Joe McLean.

● Forward Richard Jefferson, knee, 13 games, 1999-2000 midseason. Replacement: freshman Luke Walton.

● Loren Woods, back, final eight games, 1999-2000. (Woods also missed the first eight games of the 2000-01 season with the same problem.) Replacement: junior Justin Wessel.

● Walton, ankle, four games, 2002-03 midseason. Replacement: freshman Andre Iguodala.

● Jawann McClellan, wrist, missed all but two games, 2005-06. Replacement: senior Chris Rodgers.

What goes around has come around and it has nested at McKale Center. That nest has been steadily occupied by injured Wildcats since the winter of 1999-2000.

It is my contention that Arizona coulda, shoulda, woulda won NCAA titles in 2000 and 2001 had the Wildcats had maintained their streak of good health.

In 1999-2000, Arizona was a No. 1 seed that was eliminated by eighth-seeded Wisconsin in a second-round NCAA game. Wisconsin reached the Final Four. The Wildcats were without the imposing Woods, a 7-foot junior, who was averaging 15.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and, incredibly, 4.1 blocks per game.

A year later, after it reached the national championship game against Duke, the Wildcats were forced to use injured Gilbert Arenas even though he essentially separated his shoulder in the Final Four blowout over Michigan State.

Unable to tolerate contact or shoot properly, Arenas shot 4 for 17 afield. He wasn't the same player he was while being named MVP of the Midwest Regional a week earlier.

Now, seven years later, Arizona's 23-year streak of NCAA tournament appearances is in peril because the absence of Wise and Brielmaier has compromised the UA's depth. The Wildcats have probably lost three games — two against ASU and one against Oregon — they would have won with a healthy roster.

To his credit, O'Neill isn't playing the woe-is-me card.

That may come later.

Follow local sports on Greg Hansen's blog: go.azstarnet.com/hansenblog