Food poisoning hits 6 Cardinal players

STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford might not be at full strength when it faces Arizona today.

Two starters were among six players diagnosed with food poisoning. Many of the sick players were on IVs for most of Friday.

The sick starters are Mitch Johnson and Fred Washington. Washington was ill against Arizona State on Thursday but played through it.

Apparently, many of the team members ate bad chicken.

"I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. What can you do?'' said Stanford coach Trent Johnson. "The game is going to be played no matter what.''

Stanford is already without injured guard Anthony Goods.

"We're like boxers,'' Johnson said. "We get knocked down, but we get back up.''

Guard-forward Lawrence Hill, who leads Stanford in scoring and rebounding, could have gone to Arizona if the Wildcats had not taken Fendi Onobun.

"They were the first (place) I wanted to go to,'' said Hill, a 6-foot-8 sophomore from Glendale's Deer Valley High School. "That's just the way it goes.''

Hill is averaging 16.2 points and 6.1 rebounds. Onobun is averaging 1.9 points as a reserve.

"I enjoy it here a lot,'' Hill said. "I knew I'd have an opportunity to play well here. You can't take away anything you can get outside of basketball.''

Johnson praised Hill's efforts.

"We saw his potential,'' Johnson said. "Lawrence was a top-100 guy.''

UA coach Lute Olson's history with recruits shows he rarely misses on many, but Onobun has played limited minutes at Arizona.

Olson did something Friday he doesn't do often - praised the Pac-10 referees.

He said the league has allowed more physical play by not calling fouls as often.

"That's been pretty consistent throughout the league,'' he said. "Thank goodness, as far as the coaches are concerned. I think that's good for teams in our league, and from the fans' standpoint, the biggest complaint has been (to) let them play. They've done a nice job.''