We talk a lot about blue bloods in college basketball and when you think about those names the first that come to mind may be the North Carolina Tarheels, Duke Blue Devis, or Kentucky Wildcats. But another oft-forgotten name that we forget that is also a blue blood is the Arizona Wildcats.
The Wildcats have been able to carve out their little piece of history throughout the years. They have won one national championship, made four Final Fours, and made 11 Elite 8 appearances.
Along the way, they have also produced some of the greatest basketball players of all time but today we focus on the 10 best who wore an Arizona uniform.
10. Salim Stoudamaire, guard
If you noticed one thing about this list is that Arizona has produced a lot of great point guards. Another one of those greats is Salim Stoudamaire. Stoudamire was a great three-point shooting specialist who led his team to two Elite 8’s and one Sweet 16 appearance while shooting was a 45.8 percent career 3-point shooter and hit 50.4 percent on 120 makes his final season. He is the school’s No. 4 scorer, with 1,960 points.
9. Jason Gardner, guard
James Gardner is a two-time All-American (second and third team) and is a three-time first-team All-Pac 12 selection who led the Wildcats to the Elite 8 as a senior and ranks third in career scoring at 1,984 points, as well as fourth in assists and third in steals in school history.
8. Bob Elliott, center
Bob Elliott was on the first Wildcats team that went to the Elite 8 in 1976. Elliott was a three-time first-team All-WAC selection and averaged 16.5 points or better all four seasons. He also averaged a double-double in not only his freshman year but junior also and is only second to Sean Elliott (no relation) in scoring.
7. Miles Simon, guard
Miles Simon did a feat that most players haven’t accomplished and that is being named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player when he scored 30 points in defeating the Kentucky Wildcats for Arizona’s first national championship in 1997. Simon was also a consensus All-American who scored 1,664 points in his career, while averaging 18.4 as a junior and 17.2 as a senior, and is No. 10 in school history in career assists.
6. Khalid Reeves, guard
Overlooked sometimes as one of the Wildcats’ greats is Khalid Reeves. Reeves was a second-team All-American in the 1994 season who scored 848 points in his senior year which is still a school record. He also averaged over 24 points a game that year while leading the Wildcats to the 1994 Final Four. Reeves ranks No. 5 in career scoring for the Wildcats.
5. Jason Terry, guard
Jason Terry may be more known to younger basketball fans as the great guard for the Dallas Mavericks who helped lead them to the one and only NBA Title, but his great guard play began with the Wildcats. Interesting fact, Terry wasn’t even a starter but by the time Terry was a senior, however, he became an All-American and Pact 10 Player of the Year who averaged nearly 22 points and six assists per game. Terry also was part of the 1997 team that won the national championship and he is the only player in Arizona history to finish with 1,000 career points and 200 career steals.
4. Steve Kerr, point guard
Many people forget that before Steve Kerr was a star in the NBA, he was a star player with the Arizona Wildcats. Kerr was a two-time first-team All-Pac-10 selection, Kerr also set an NCAA single-season record for 3-point percentage (57.3%, 114–199) in 1987–88. He also was a second and third-team All-American. He also held Pac-12 records for two decades in three-point shooting.
3. Damon Stoudamire, guard
Damon Stoudamire might have been the greatest guard to play under legendary head coach Lute Olson. Stoudamire was an All-American, Pac-10 Player of the Year, and three-time first-team All-Pac 10 selection. He ranks in the top 10 in school history in scoring (No. 6, 1,849 points), assists (No. 3), 3-pointers (No. 3), and steals (No. 8). He was also part of the Wildcats team that went to the Final Four who eventually lost to the Arkansas Razorbacks. That same season when he was named co-Pac 10 Player of the Year along with UCLA’s Ed O’Bannon in 1995, Stoudamire averaged 22.8 points and 7.3 assists, giving him a direct hand in 46.6 percent of the team’s field goals.
2. Mike Bibby, guard
Mike Bibby was a freshman sensation in 1997 who was named Pac 10 Freshman of the Year while helping his team to their first national championship. During that Wildcats run, Bibby averaged 19.5 points, eight rebounds, and four assists in the two victories — both against two No. 1 seeds. But in 1998, he was even better which may be hard to believe. In 1998, he became an All-American and Pac 10 Player of the Year, who averaged 17.2 points and 5.7 assists that season. Bibby went on to have 13 13-year NBA career with several teams.
1. Sean Elliott, forward
The greatest Wildcats player of all time is Sean Elliott. Elliott was Mr. Everything for those Lute Olson Wildcat teams of the late 80s and played a huge part of the Wildcats team 1988 team along with Steve Kerr who made the Wildcats’ first Final Four appearance in school history. In 1989, Elliott was named National Player of the Year by AP, won the John Wooden Award, a two-time All-American, two-time Pac 10 Player of the Year, Pac 10 Freshman of the Year, two-time Pac 10 Tournament MVP, and was a three-time first-team All-Pac 10 selection. Elliott also broke Lew Alcindor’s (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) all-time Pac-10 career scoring record and is the Wildcats all-time leading scorer with 2500 points in his college career.
He also is a gold medal winner and is part of the College Basketball Hall of Fame. Although Elliott didn’t win a national championship while he was a player at Arizona, he became the catalyst for the San Antonio Spurs dynasty starting in 1999 when the Spurs won their first NBA title. But Elliott may be more remembered as one of the greatest basketball players the Pac 10 has ever seen.
