UCLA freshman Kevin Love is expected to give the Wildcats a difficult time Sunday. He had 26 points and 11 rebounds in their first meeting.

Kevork Djansezian / The Associated Press 2008

Other articles by Bruce Pascoe:

Late foul costs CatsAt halftime: UAB 41, Arizona 31'Big' victory comes earlyArizona 75, Florida Atlantic 62 Jarvis has good, bad memories of McKale NYC not a site, or in sights, of Cats yet The teacher who's still a studentNailing down new styleDoom or boom market for UA? NCAA looks into players' benefits from prep tourney

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SOUTHERN ARIZONA ENDODONTICS I
NSURANCE PROCESSOR Technical
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Analyst Banner Programmer Dental
Apache Dental
Porcelain Techs Education
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LANDCAPE FOREMAN & LABORERS Health Care
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Carondelet Foothills Surgery
Pre-Op Nurse

Without a win over UCLA on Sunday or a sweep in Oregon next week, Arizona is staring at a sub-.500 Pac-10 record for the first time since 1983-84.

Its hopes for a 24th straight NCAA tournament berth could be in danger, too.

That's a fair amount of heat under UA interim head coach Kevin O'Neill.

Except that his seat has been plenty warm for months now, in an uneven season punctuated by key injuries and head coach Lute Olson's unexplained leave of absence.

"To me, I feel like we've been pushed against the wall since Nov. 4," O'Neill said Friday, referring to the date Olson took his leave. "I'm not exaggerating. I've felt a sense of desperation in every game we've played. I hope our guys come out and play with a sense of urgency from the get-go (Sunday) and give us a chance to win the game down the stretch."

Unfortunately for O'Neill, that did not happen Thursday against USC. The Wildcats fell behind 11-2 early and never fully caught up, trailing by as many as 16 points.

"We definitely put ourselves in a hole from the start and that killed us," wing Chase Budinger said. "It let them have the momentum and it really put our confidence down.

"We just came out and played soft in the beginning. It took us eight or nine minutes to finally start playing normal basketball, and we just can't have that mind-set during the game. That's an approach we've got to change."

There's little doubt starting slowly Sunday is not a good idea. The Bruins jumped ahead 23-8 on Feb. 2 in Los Angeles and went on to hand the Wildcats their worst loss of the season 82-60.

It was the sixth straight time UCLA had beaten the UA in what used to be a hard-fought rivalry.

"That was a great win," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "When we played against them, I felt we did a really great job defensively. We played really well that weekend."

Olson may show up for senior day ceremonies after Sunday's UCLA game, despite having extended his leave of absence for the entire season in December.

UA senior associate athletic director Rocky LaRose said Friday she has spoken often with Olson but did not say whether he would definitely make an appearance.

"I can't say one way or another," LaRose said. "The status of Coach Olson is that he's still on an approved leave of absence, but we'd certainly welcome him for senior day, because he's played such a major role with the seniors' careers."

O'Neill said he has not spoken to Olson about whether he would show up.

Olson has not appeared at any UA games all season, although he has occasionally shown up at McKale Center.

The extra day of preparation or rest did not appear to matter much to either coach.

The UA will be playing its second Sunday game of the Pac-10 season; UCLA will be playing its third.

"I'm torn," said Howland, who previously coached on various nights of the week at Pittsburgh. "I'm not sure. I'm not a big Sunday guy. In the Big East, there was Wednesday-Saturday, or Tuesday-Friday. Sometimes you can do that."

O'Neill ran the Wildcats through about an hour of drills Friday and said he planned for a hard 45-minute practice today.