Despite the adversity, UA interim head coach Kevin O'Neill has managed to guide the Wildcats to a 16-8 record.

James S. Wood / arizona daily star

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The first "Kevin O'Neill can't coach'' cries began to circulate this week. He's a retread. He's stubborn. Over-dressed. Overwhelmed. All of it.

O'Neill is coaching the Arizona Wildcats with one fewer sets of coaching eyes this year, and, in some ways, he's coaching solo, deploying the most vulnerable and thinnest roster seen at McKale Center in 25 years.

He's in position to be the fall guy for the whole thing. No wonder he described the last few days as being in "the desperation mode.''

After Sunday's loss to Arizona State, critics insisted that O'Neill misuses his bench (what bench?), doesn't recognize the need to deploy a zone defense, doesn't know when to call a timeout, and that they can't wait for Lute Olson to come back.

Well, what a surprise.

So the last thing O'Neill needed after his team thumped Cal 83-73 Thursday night was for Jordan Hill to tell the Arizona Daily Wildcat that he "guarantees'' a victory over Stanford on Saturday.

Unable for one of the few times to deliver one of his witty rejoinders, O'Neill said, simply, "God, almighty.''

This depth-challenged team has been surviving on a wing. With Stanford coming to town, it needs a prayer.

For the past 24 years, Arizona has encountered an occasional crisis or two during the winter, but this is crazy. It's mid-February and the Wildcats have just six Pac-10 victories. There is an uneasy feeling about the remaining seven games because, frankly, Arizona will be a clear favorite in just one of them, at Oregon State.

That's why Thursday's victory has such significance. Had Cal won, you could have started wondering if Jim Livengood would consider hanging the "NIT 2008'' banner at McKale Center.

Incredibly, Arizona scored on its last 15 possessions Thursday (except for the final, run-out-the-clock series) and as much as it reflected the UA's ability to play to the situation, it also exhibited how little Cal gets from its potential.

Compare the Wildcats and Bears in roster spots 1-through-10, and the Bears probably prevail in seven of the choices. But since Jason Kidd left school in 1994, Cal has traditionally looked better on paper than on the floor.

That's the nice way of saying Kevin O'Neill won the coaching battle with Ben Braun on Thursday. Put it this way: If UCLA's Ben Howland had taken over the Bears last fall when O'Neill took charge of the Wildcats, don't you think Cal would be something like 9-3 instead of 5-7?

Holy smokes. The Bears have players everywhere. Their inside twosome of DeVon Hardin and Ryan Anderson should be the most productive in the Pac-10. They have a surplus of capable guards and wing players, from Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher to Jamal Boykin.

But for whatever reason, the Bears don't play defense when they absolutely have to play defense, and certainly nothing compared to the tenor O'Neill has set in his brief time on Arizona's bench.

Permitting an opponent to score on 15 consecutive possessions in the game's final 10 minutes? That's inexcusable.

"They did a good job of pressing up against us,'' said Anderson, the league's top scorer, who required 18 shots and eight free throw attempts to score 19 points. "They were doing a really good job of fronting me.''

Cal is about shots, not stops. It lost by allowing Oregon 92 points, ASU 99 and, now, Arizona 83. Only four times had the Wildcats scored that many. There were open shots everywhere.

"We know we can score with anyone, but our defense was pretty poor tonight,'' said Randle.

Similarly, Hardin said "we played good offensively, but when you allow as many points as we did tonight, you aren't going to beat anyone.''

Arizona won Thursday not because it outmanned Cal, but because O'Neill has changed the way this team approaches each game.

The first order of business was to disrupt Anderson and prevent Hardin from establishing himself.

His key strategy? Use freshman Jamelle Horne as a 35-minute defensive stopper. And it worked. The Wildcats took away Cal's strength and, at the same time, won the inside battle when Hill got some confidence early and played his best game (21 points, 11 rebounds) since his superb 23-point, 14-rebound performance against Illinois two long months ago.

This isn't a knock on Braun; He's been a steady winner at Cal, and he has a lucrative and lengthy contract. He won big at Eastern Michigan many years ago.

But if the Bears were ever going to sweep Arizona, this would've been the year.

Instead, Arizona swept the Bears and the man who should share the credit with Jerryd Bayless is Kevin O'Neill.

Maybe he's no Lute Olson, but after 24 games and an overload of adversity, Arizona is somehow 16-8 and still on the NCAA tournament radar.

A little voice keeps whispering in my ear that somehow, even without Nic Wise and Bret Brielmaier, O'Neill will find a way to get his team the two or three more victories it needs to avoid hanging that NIT banner.