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The deep Pac-10 tournament bracket that Arizona fell into is lined with silver.

In their opening game Wednesday at Staples Center, the Wildcats get the pleasure of facing the only team in Pac-10 history to go through an 18-game season without a victory, Oregon State.

Assuming they win that one, Arizona would face Stanford in the quarterfinals on Thursday, a team they have come close to beating twice this season. The Cardinal also historically has not played well in the Pac-10 tournament, which falls this season as usual during the week before Stanford's winter-quarter finals: Stanford is 4-5, with four first-game exits, since the Pac-10 tournament was revived in 2002.

Then, if the Wildcats got past Stanford, they would face the winner of the Oregon-Washington State game in Friday's semifinals, having stayed conveniently out of the "home" side of the bracket where USC and UCLA reside.

Arizona wouldn't play either of the Los Angeles teams until Saturday's finale, if at all, when it would be comfortably in the NCAA tournament no matter what happens.

Sound good, Wildcats?

Maybe, but interim head coach Kevin O'Neill and his players don't want to hear it. After losing 78-69 at Oregon on Saturday to earn their first-ever first-round Pac-10 tournament game, they aren't looking too far ahead.

They can't. A loss to hapless Oregon State, no matter how improbable it seems, would probably kill the Wildcats' NCAA tournament hopes. But a win, and then at least a good showing against Stanford, might be enough.

So, for the second week in a row, the Wildcats are in a virtual must-win situation against the Beavers.

"I want to win as many games as we can," O'Neill said. "The only thing I can say is the committee is going to make the decisions. But it's important to win the game on Wednesday."

Several UA players said after Saturday's game they were strictly thinking immediate survival, not Thursday, Friday or Selection Sunday.

"We have to take care of business come Wednesday. It's sudden death," wing Jawann McClellan said. "The Pac-10 has prepared us well. The most important thing is we have to get our rest."

Rest is a bit of a problem, though. While O'Neill has leaned on his starters heavily in games, he has structured light practice weeks, with Tuesday being the only all-out day of practice.

But since the OSU game is Wednesday, O'Neill will have to cram in that full practice today, then go easy on Tuesday. He also has to carefully weigh any use of point guard Nic Wise, who played a total of 74 minutes during the weekend in his first games back since Feb. 6 knee surgery.

Wise experienced swelling on Friday but said he felt OK on Saturday. O'Neill said that Wise's swelling Sunday morning was no worse than Friday's but would not decide until today whether to use Wise in practice.

There's no question Wise won't rest much once the tournament begins.

"I played him 40 minutes (at Oregon) because that's the choice I had," O'Neill said. "I either play a tired Nic or somebody who's not a point guard. I chose to play Nic those minutes. He's got a couple days to recover and stay off his feet."

Meanwhile, guard Jerryd Bayless has a couple of days to cool off after his intensity boiled over Saturday when the Ducks defended him relentlessly. Bayless spent most of the evening in foul trouble.

"Jerryd let himself get really frustrated by the way they were playing him. He's got to learn to play through that," O'Neill said. "Hopefully wherever he's playing next year, he won't get into that whole thing. But if he's playing at the next level, they're going to bait him every night and find out what he's got and what he's about."

Bayless' third foul, which prompted O'Neill to bench him for the final 3:30 of the first half, particularly bothered O'Neill. Bayless became entangled with Oregon's LeKendric Longmire, and when they tussled slightly on their attempts to get up, fouls were called on both.

Longmire celebrated, knowing Bayless had picked up his third foul. Bayless, who declined to discuss the incident, scowled.

"They didn't care if that guy got fouled, whoever it was," O'Neill said. "It means a lot more to us. I don't even know who the guy was. I just know they didn't care about him getting the foul. They cared about Jerryd getting the foul."

O'Neill said the short-handed Wildcats simply don't have leeway for those kinds of "crazy fouls," but he was hardly critical of Bayless, having praised his intensity and competitiveness all season.

Nor did he ultimately criticize anyone else on the team, for that matter. Not after an 8-10 finish in a wildly competitive conference under difficult circumstances.

"I thought they did a very fine job during the regular season overall, with a lot of distractions and injuries," O'Neill said. "Now we need to move forward into what we hope is a three-part season."

Visit azstarnet.com/wildcats this evening for a video from Kevin O'Neill's press conference.