Walton 's foot showing improvement, The Arizona Daily Star - Wednesday, February 24, 1999, Author: Bruce Pascoe
When Arizona freshman forward Luke Walton was lost for the season last fall, the worry wasn't just the stress fracture in his foot.
The worry was that he was a Walton with a stress fracture in his foot.
For now, at least, those worries have been calmed. Walton recovered well enough to begin practicing fully this week for the first time since November, suffering only the usual aches and pains from a hard day of practice.
``My body's sore, but my foot doesn't hurt,'' he said. ``It was the first time I played without pain in a year.''
Doctors believe Walton originally hurt his foot last season at University High in San Diego, but that it went undetected underneath an ankle sprain. When the ankle healed last fall and Walton continued to have problems, UA trainers and doctors began re-examining him and found the stress fracture.
Although the injury was one of the exact same ones that plagued the career of his father, Bill, Walton said it was not hereditary.
``I could get any injury and it could be related to what he had,'' Walton said. ``He had injuries to his feet, knees, ankles, back . . .''
Walton 's time off the court wasn't completely idle. He said he picked up some team concepts, and Arizona coach Lute Olson noticed.
``It's obvious that when he was on the sidelines, he wasn't counting the light bulbs at McKale,'' Olson said. ``I tell you what, he could play pretty quickly if we (needed him).''
Recruiting update. With up to three scholarships to give - and some lingering questions in the backcourt - Arizona has at least reopened the possibility of adding another wing next season.
Joe Shipp, a 6-foot-5-inch senior wing forward from Los Angeles Fairfax High School, is among those currently on the UA radar screen. Fairfax coach Harvey Kitani said UA assistant coach Rodney Tention has watched several of Shipp's games recently, but that Arizona has not and may not offer a scholarship.
``(Shipp) is not close to figuring out what he wants to do,'' Kitani said. ``There's a lot of teams out there right now like Arizona that are keeping their options open.''
Kitani said USC, Oregon State, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Clemson, North Carolina State and Texas are among those who offered Shipp a scholarship.
Shipp, an All-LA City player as a sophomore, missed most of last season with a broken bone in his leg. He is averaging 28.1 points and 10.5 rebounds this season.
Arizona 's 1999 recruiting class so far includes point guard Jason Gardner of Indianapolis North Central and combo guard Gilbert Arenas of Grant High School in Van Nuys, Calif.
Bearing down. Olson said he hasn't ``heard anybody talking about Stanford,'' not with potenti
ally dangerous Cal on tap tomorrow.
The Wildcats beat the Bears 91-74 on Jan. 30 at McKale Center in a rare blowout, but Cal has beaten North Carolina and UCLA at home, while losing to Stanford at the New Arena by only two points.
``We know how good they are,'' forward Gene Edgerson said. ``They might not show it at times, but they are a loaded team. They've just got an NBA style and that's not helping them.''
Thomas Kilgore and Geno Carlisle are the Bears' two top freelance artists. While Olson said yesterday he was not certain who would start at shooting guard, he said UA would need a ``big-time'' performance from either Traves Wilson or Ruben Douglas to counter them.
Etc. Arizona may not be talking about Stanford yet, but UCLA coach Steve Lavin is - and he likes the Cardinal. ``Maples (Pavilion) gives them a great edge but what's interesting is that Arizona seems to be hitting on all cylinders right now,'' Lavin said, adding that ``I'd say Stanford by three.'' Lavin, it should be noted, correctly predicted in the middle of last season that Stanford, not the defending national champion Wildcats , would reach the Final Four because of its depth. . . . Guard Jason Terry is one of six finalists for the Oscar Robertson Player of the Year Award, along with Duke's Trajan Langdon and Elton Brand, Wally Szczerbiak of Miami (Ohio), Utah's Andre Miller and Northwestern's Evan Eschmeyer. Ohio State's Jim O'Brien and Auburn's Cliff Ellis are finalists for a Coach of the Year Award from the same organization, the United States Basketball Writers Association. . . . Terry could catch Joe Nehls this weekend and hit 13th on Arizona 's career scoring list with 46 total points. Nehls, who now does UA television commentating, scored 1,409 points from 1976-80.