1988–89 Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team

The 1988–89 Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team represented the University of Arizona. The head coach was Lute Olson. The team played its home games in the McKale Center in Tucson, Arizona, and was a member of the Pacific-10 Conference. In the Pac-10 Basketball Tournament, Arizona beat Stanford by a score of 73–51 to claim its second consecutive Pac-10 title.

1988–89 Arizona Wildcats men's basketball
Pacific-10 regular season champions Pacific-10 tournament champions
NCAA tournament, Sweet Sixteen
Conference	Pacific-10
Ranking
Coaches	No. 1
AP	No. 1
Record	29–4 (17–1 Pac-10)
Head coach	Lute Olson (6th season)
Assistant coaches	Kevin O'Neill (3rd season) Jessie Evans (1st season)
Home arena	McKale Center (Capacity: 14,545)
Seasons ← 1987–88 1989–90 →

1988–89 Pacific-10 Conference
men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 1 Arizona †	17	–	1		.944			29	–	4		.879
No. 13 Stanford	15	–	3		.833			26	–	7		.788
UCLA	13	–	5		.722			21	–	10		.677
Oregon State	13	–	5		.722			22	–	8		.733
California	10	–	8		.556			20	–	13		.606
Washington	8	–	10		.444			12	–	16		.429
Arizona State	5	–	13		.278			12	–	16		.429
Washington State	4	–	14		.222			10	–	19		.345
Oregon	3	–	15		.167			8	–	21		.276
USC	2	–	16		.111			10	–	22		.313
† Conference tournament winner As of April 15, 1989[1] Rankings from AP poll

Roster

1988–89 Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Previous school Hometown F 00 Anthony Cook — — Sr Van Nuys HS Los Angeles, CA G 11 Kenny Lofton — — Sr Washington HS East Chicago, IN G 24 Matt Muehlebach — —     SF 32 Sean Elliott 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Sr Cholla HS Tucson, AZ SF 35 Jud Buechler 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Jr Poway HS Poway, CA	Head coach Lute Olsen Assistant coach(es) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible (W) Walk-on Injured Current redshirt

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Regular season
Nov 30, 1988*	No. 11	New Mexico	W 80–67	1–0	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Dec 2, 1988*	No. 11	vs. No. 10 North Carolina Diet Pepsi Tournament of Champions	L 72–79	1–1	Charlotte Coliseum  Charlotte, North Carolina
Dec 3, 1988*	No. 11	vs. No. 17 Temple Diet Pepsi Tournament of Champions	W 68–50	2–1	Charlotte, Coliseum  Charlotte, North Carolina
Dec 10, 1988*	No. 10	No. 9 UNLV	W 86–75	3–1	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Dec 18, 1988	No. 9	Washington State	W 76–59	4–1 (1–0)	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Dec 20, 1988	No. 9	Washington	W 116–61	5–1 (2–0)	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Dec 23, 1988	No. 9	at Oregon State	W 73–69	6–1 (3–0)	Gill Coliseum  Corvallis, Oregon
Dec 28, 1988*	No. 8	Loyola-Chicago	W 106–82	7–1	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Dec 30, 1988*	No. 8	Pittsburgh	W 88–62	8–1	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Jan 5, 1989	No. 8	at Stanford	L 78–83	8–2 (3–1)	Maples Pavilion  Stanford, California
Jan 7, 1989	No. 8	at California	W 64–55	9–2 (4–1)	Harmon Gym  Berkeley, California
Jan 12, 1989	No. 12	Oregon State	W 85–64	10–2 (5–1)	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Jan 14, 1989	No. 12	Oregon	W 95–71	11–2 (6–1)	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Jan 19, 1989	No. 9	at USC	W 97–69	12–2 (7–1)	L.A. Sports Arena  Los Angeles, California
Jan 21, 1989*	No. 9	Villanova	W 75–67	13–2	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Jan 26, 1989	No. 6	at Arizona State Rivalry	W 96–71	14–2 (8–1)	ASU Activity Center  Tempe, Arizona
Jan 29, 1989*	No. 6	No. 19 Stanford	W 72–52	15–2 (9–1)	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Feb 2, 1989	No. 4	California	W 86–59	16–2 (10–1)	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Feb 5, 1989	No. 4	at Washington	W 85–68	17–2 (11–1)	Bank of America Arena  Seattle, Washington
Feb 9, 1989	No. 1	at Oregon	W 78–57	18–2 (12–1)	McArthur Court  Eugene, Oregon
Feb 12, 1989*	No. 1	at No. 5 Oklahoma	L 80–82[2]	18–3	Lloyd Noble Center  Norman, Oklahoma
Feb 16, 1989	No. 2	USC	W 93–70	19–3 (13–1)	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Feb 18, 1989	No. 2	UCLA Rivalry	W 102–62	20–3 (14–1)	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Feb 23, 1989	No. 2	Arizona State Rivalry	W 109–74	21–3 (15–1)	McKale Center  Tucson, Arizona
Feb 26, 1989*	No. 2	vs. No. 9 Duke	W 77–75	22–3	Brendan Byrne Arena  East Rutherford, New Jersey
Mar 2, 1989	No. 1	at Washington State	W 74–48	23–3 (16–1)	Friel Court  Pullman, Washington
Mar 4, 1989	No. 1	at UCLA Rivalry	W 89–86	24–3 (17–1)	Pauley Pavilion  Los Angeles, California
Pac-10 Tournament
Mar 10, 1989*	(1) No. 1	vs. (8) Washington State Pac-10 Tournament Quarterfinal	W 62–54	25–3	The Forum  Inglewood, California
Mar 11, 1989*	(1) No. 1	vs. (4) Oregon State Pac-10 Tournament Semifinal	W 98–87	26–3	The Forum  Inglewood, California
Mar 12, 1989*	(1) No. 1	vs. (2) No. 12 Stanford Pac-10 tournament championship	W 73–51	27–3	The Forum  Inglewood, California
NCAA Tournament
Mar 16, 1989*	(1 W) No. 1	vs. (16 W) Robert Morris First round	W 94–60	28–3	BSU Pavilion  Boise, Idaho
Mar 18, 1989*	(1 W) No. 1	vs. Clemson Second Round	W 94–68	29–3	BSU Pavilion  Boise, Idaho
Mar 23, 1989*	(1 W) No. 1	vs. (4 W) No. 15 UNLV West Regional semifinal – Sweet Sixteen	L 67–68	29–4	McNichols Sports Arena  Denver, Colorado
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. W=West.

NCAA basketball tournament

Seeding in brackets

• West
  • Arizona (1) 94, Robert Morris (16) 60^[3]
  • Arizona 94, Clemson (9) 68^[4]
  • UNLV (4) 68, Arizona 67^[5]

^[6]

Rankings

Main article: 1988–89 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
— = Not ranked

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Final
AP	11	10	11	10	9	9	8	8	12	9	6	4	1	2	2	1	1	1
Coaches	11	—	9	10	9	9	8	7	10	7	5	3	1	2	2	1	1	1

^Coaches did not release a Week 1 poll.

Awards and honors

• Sean Elliott, Pacific-10 Player of the Year
• Sean Elliott, Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament Most Valuable Player
• Sean Elliott, Adolph Rupp Trophy^[7]
• Sean Elliott, Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year
• Sean Elliott, John R. Wooden Award^[8]
• Sean Elliott, State Farm Division I Player of the Year Award

Team players drafted into the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
1	3	Sean Elliott	San Antonio Spurs
1	24	Anthony Cook	Phoenix Suns

^[9]

References

1. "2017-18 Men's Basketball Media Guide". Pac-12 Conference. p. 72. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
2. "Oklahoma Stakes No. 1 Claim, 82-80". The Washington Post. February 13, 1989. Retrieved August 30, 2020.
3. "Arizona Quickly Slams the Door on Robert Morris". Los Angeles Times. March 17, 1989. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
4. "Arizona Wins Over Clemson in Victory". Los Angeles Times. March 19, 1989. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
5. "No. 1 Arizona Upset On 3-Pointer at :002". The New York Times. March 24, 1989. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
6. "RotoWire Fantasy Football, Baseball, Basketball and More".
7. "About Us". Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved April 17, 2009.
8. "Wooden Award - Athletics". Archived from the original on April 13, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2009.
9. "1989 NBA Draft on Basketballreference.com". Archived from the original on March 17, 2010. Retrieved May 7, 2009.