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TUCSON, Ariz. -- Two games in and Arizona freshman Lauri Markkanen is already drawing high praise from his coach.Lauris one of the best players in college basketball, Sean Miller said. He is. Hes a monster.The 18-year-old 7-footer from Finland scored 26 points and the 10th-ranked Wildcats held off a furious second-half rally by Cal State Bakersfield for a 78-66 victory on Tuesday night.Jaylin Airington scored 31 for the Roadrunners (1-1) and led a 17-0 run that cut Arizonas lead to four with 9:04 to play. But Markkanen sank a 3-pointer, converted a three-point play and made a short jumper to lead the Wildcats out of trouble.Markkanen is accustomed to such moments.I am used to it, he said. Pretty much my whole life, in big moments, I have the ball in my hands.The already short-handed Wildcats (2-0) were without starting senior guard Kadeem Allen, who sprained a knee in Arizonas 65-63 victory over Michigan State last Friday in Honolulu.Rawle Alkins was 4 for 6 on 3-pointers and scored 15 for the Wildcats and Kobi Simmons added 13. Both also are freshmen.Dedrick Basile added 14 for BakersfieldHaving the opportunity to play a top 10 team is going to give us an opportunity to have some confidence coming out of this game, Roadrunners coach Rod Barnes said.Airington was 10 for 25 from the field, and Miller said its hard to get 25 shots in a college game. It wasnt enough.It was a good individual effort, Airington said, but I wanted to win more than anything.Arizona was up 44-26 at the half and was cruising along when a tip-in by yet another freshman, Keanu Pinder, gave the Wildcats a 53-32 lead with 14:45 to play. Arizona didnt score for the next 6:46.The McKale Center crowd fell into an uncomfortable silence when Damine Durhams basket cut the lead to 53-49 with 9:04 to play.A ruckus under the Arizona basket finally woke the Wildcats up.Chance Comanche went up for a layup and was hit hard by a pair of Bakersfield defenders. Some shoving occurred with Comanche lying on the court and officials called time out to review the incident on video.Taze Moore was called for a flagrant foul one and Comanche ended the long drought by making one of two free throws with 7:59 left. Arizona got the ball out of bounds on the play and Markkanen sank his only 3 of the night to boost the lead to 57-49.Playing small forward on Arizonas big front line, he drove hard down the lane, was fouled and converted a three-point play with 5:51 left and made a short jumper with 5:17 to go, giving the Wildcats a 64-54 lead and they held on from there.Lauris strong, Miller said. Hes not skinny, hes not thin. Hes 18 years old buy physically he can take a pounding and I think that really shows. He doesnt appear to be 7 foot because hes not a rail-thin 7-footer.His pull-ups that he made tonight, watching him go to the free throw line under pressure, hes a special, special player.Hes also a great team player and a good student.I dont think hes got a B at Arizona, Miller said. And practice-wise hes consumed with becoming a great player. Hes one of our teams hardest workers. ... Im so glad we have him.BIG PICTURECal State Bakersfield: The Roadrunners were not cowed by the atmosphere and look like WAC contenders.Arizona: After the opener against a big name school, the young Wildcats fell into a lull with a big lead. That might not have happened if Allen had been available.PLAYER SHORTAGEThe absence of Allen left Arizona with only seven scholarship players with a particular shortage at guard. It got even worse when Jackson-Cartwright got into foul trouble.UP NEXTCal State Bakersfield: returns home to face UC Santa Barbara Saturday night.Arizona: Plays the second of three straight home nonconference game against teams from lesser conferences, facing Sacred Heart on Friday night. Nike Shox Womens Clearance .C. -- When North Carolina freshman Ryan Switzer reported to training camp in August he was a little miffed to learn he was third on the depth chart at punt returner. Adidas NMD Outlet .J. -- Josh Cribbs was in the Pro Bowl in February and out of a job six months later. http://www.nikeshoesoutletwholesale.com/nike-air-huarache-sale.html .com) - The Montreal Canadiens embark on their first road trip of the season as they head out west to battle the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Air Max 270 React Cheap .Y. - New York City has been selected to host the NBA All-Star weekend in 2015, with the game played at Madison Square Garden and the slam dunk contest and other skills events held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Nike Air Max Plus Wholesale .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon. Having seen Ron Howards documentary, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, about the legendary bands brief but insanely popular touring years, I found myself thinking about how we react to greatness when its in front of us.Did the people who saw the Beatles in concert in 1964 really know the magnitude of what they were seeing? No, how could they? In a clip in the film, when asked that year about being a cultural phenomenon, Paul McCartney sounds embarrassed and says theyre just doing this for a laugh. Throughout 1964, the question even the Beatles themselves asked was: When will the bubble burst? Of course, it never did. And never will.Sports greatness is different in a lot of ways. New future Beatles fanatics are still born every day. But its harder to fully appreciate athletes without seeing them in the moment.When it comes to womens sports, there is even more tied to the immediacy of seeing them live, because their legends generally arent built up or maintained as well as mens are. So as Minnesota and Phoenix meet in the WNBA semifinals over the next week, dont miss the opportunity to reflect on seeing Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi on the same floor again.Moores Lynx and Taurasis Mercury are meeting in the playoffs for the fifth time in the past six years, starting with games Wednesday (ESPN2, 8 p.m. ET) and Friday (ESPNews, 8 p.m. ET) in St. Paul, Minnesota. The best-of-five series shifts to Phoenix on Sunday (ESPN, 5 p.m.). The Lynx won all three regular-season meetings.Moore and Taurasi also shared the court on the same side during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Taurasi was the U.S. teams leading scorer as she won her fourth Olympic gold medal. Moore was second on the team in scoring and led in assists; she won her second gold.Both have three WNBA titles. If one should lead her team to the championship this year, shell join Houston Comets standouts such as Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson with a record four championships.Taurasi and Moore have been linked ever since the latter ended up on the same college path at UConn, but it goes back even further. They share a birthday: June 11.Taurasi, born in 1982, is seven years older, and she came cross-country from California -- a Lakers fan, with vibrant West Coast sports pride -- to play at UConn in 2000.I still can recall a coach who saw Taurasi play in high school saying that she might be the best player ever to come into the womens college game, but ... she was cocky as hell. This coach wondered if UConns Geno Auriemma would be able to deal with her.Its hilarious to now think back on that conversation, because we know they ended up being -- and still are -- a match made in basketball heaven. Taurasi will always be the player closest to Auriemmas wisecracking, fiercely competitive heart. When Taurasi famously went 1-of-15 from the field as a freshman in the 2001 national semifinals and UConn fell to Notre Dame, Auriemma still praised her for the way shed played all that season. He said she might never lose at the Final Four again.And she never did, playing on perhaps the greatest womens college team in 2002, and then putting the team on her back for two more titles, in 2003 and 04.Moore was born and spent her childhood in Missouri, then moved to Atlanta. When she went to UConn in 2007, there was similar hype even though she and Taurasi were different types of players. And very different personalities. You werent going to get wisecracks and comic bravado from Moore. Even as an 18-year-old, Moore seemed to haave the sensibilities of a 30-year-old.ddddddddddddAnd she related to other players on court differently, too. Taurasi thinks like a point guard even when shes not in that spot in a lineup, and her ability to connect to, inspire and communicate with teammates is unsurpassed in womens hoops.Moore, a smooth and fluid forward, is more insular. Its not that she isnt a great teammate. But she was always in her own head a little more, constantly critiquing and refining her own performance to exacting standards.Both Auriemma and Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve talked about how one of Moores challenges was to integrate herself fully with her teammates, to not be quite so much on Planet Maya. And she has worked hard at doing that.Moore won two national championships at UConn, and then in 2011 was drafted No. 1 to a Minnesota team that was perfectly set up to need her as the final piece to the championship puzzle. The Lynx won the WNBA title her rookie year and have been contenders ever since. The only season of the Moores career that the Lynx didnt make the WNBA Finals was in 2014, when they lost to Taurasi and the Mercury in the Western Conference finals.The show within the showTaurasi was drafted No. 1 to a Phoenix franchise in 2004 that still had to grow to reach contender status. The Mercury won their first title in 2007. Two more followed, in 2009 and 14.Taurasi (2009) and Moore (2014) have been the leagues MVP, and in both cases it seems weird, actually, that each has won that honor only once. In the time theyve been in the WNBA together, Taurasi and Moore have been the premier players.At 27, Moore is still in her peak years as an athlete. As long as the Lynx can stay competitive around her, its reasonable to wonder just how many WNBA titles she might win. Seven? Eight?Taurasi, at 34, is getting closer to the end of her career, but its hard to say how close. If her body holds up, you can see her playing as long as she possibly can. Shed like to add more to her championship collection, too.Taurasi has hit so many clutch shots over the years, its hard to tag just one as her signature moment. But its easy to pinpoint her signature play: the pull-up 3-pointer. She makes it looks deceptively simple, and its deadly. Shes dribbling ... dribbling ... and then after what seems a mere flick of the wrist, the ball is going through the net. You can only imagine how defenders feel.For Moore, the signature shot is that balletic finger roll: the grace, the power, the body control as she glides to the rim.Her signature moment came last year in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals at Indiana. The teams had split games at Minnesota, and it was feeling a lot like the 2012 WNBA Finals, in which the Fever upset the Lynx in four games. But Moores 3-point buzzer-beater gave the Lynx a 80-77 victory.If she missed, the game would have gone to overtime. And if the Fever had won, they would have been playing for the title at home a few nights later. But she didnt miss.With the new playoff format this season doing away with conferences and taking the top eight teams, Minnesota earned a comfortable and familiar position: the No. 1 seed. Phoenix had a much bumpier ride and ended up as No. 8.But theyre both here now, three wins from a place in the WNBA Finals. The show within the show is Maya vs. Diana.Is it true greatness vs. true greatness? You know the answer to that: Yeah, yeah, yeah. ' ' '