Smugly sits the championship crown on Arizona’s fat head.
Say, All-American point guard Mike Bibby, how would a Final Four showdown against No. 1-ranked North Carolina set with you?
“We beat ’em twice last year and I guess they’d want some revenge,” Bibby said. “They can come and get it. They might not be as lucky. We might be even harsher on them.”
And you, coach Lute Olson?
“Scared to death,” Olson said, sarcasm no extra charge.
Whipping teams by 39 and 33 points will do that, though Arizona’s self-opinion was in place well before it began defense of its NCAA title, before it blew away lint like Nicholls State and Illinois State in the first two rounds.
Arizona went to Sacramento with a chip on its shoulder and it will head on to Anaheim the same way.
Yo, All-America guard Miles Simon, you still peeved that someone dared to think Arizona might not win the West?
“Did Cincinnati lose?” Simon asked. “I guess that means West Virginia is the favorite now, doesn’t it? Or maybe Utah.”
As I said, sarcasm comes free with any conversation.
“We don’t think about other teams,” Simon said. “To be the best you have to beat the best, and last year we played three No. 1 seeds and beat ’em all. Whoever. It doesn’t matter.”
This is a wonderful college basketball team, this Arizona, well regarded anyplace that matters. It is fast and fierce and deep, as complete a team as any ever. It is certainly better than the imagined insults it seems to require as fuel.
Olson keeps the resentment stirred. This is an old coaching trick, this us-against-all-of-them mind-set, but it has not been seen in such abundance since Georgetown was a habit.
Take this bit of silliness. An Arizona guard named Jason Terry wears lucky socks, long ones with the word “Cats” running down. Someone stole the socks, or so Arizona believes, and Terry went O for 9 against Nicholls State. Terry had to get another lucky pair air-expressed between games, and then hit three threes to contribute to the rout of Illinois State.
Enemies are everywhere. Even in the laundry.
And enemies would certainly be in any of the mandated open practices the tournaments require. Hence, Arizona tends to goof off.
“You’ll never see us show anything at one of those things,” Olson said. “The opposing staffs are there. The media is there. The media that knows so much about what we should be doing may criticize us.”
Mockery, thy name is Lute.
There is no relief from Arizona’s suspicions. Illinois State, a team injury-depleted and talent-challenged, managed to tie Arizona early in the second half. Happily the ISU players jumped around their bench, a bit of disrespect that did not go unnoticed by the ever-alert, easily offended Arizonas.
“They were laughing at us,” Bibby said.
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How dare they. Laughing?
“You know the kind of laugh,” Bibby said, “the kind where you know you are going to lose but you are staying close. It was that kind of laugh, but it was still a laugh.”
Punishment is immediate. Laughing deserves a 15-0, 27-2 run. You know, total humiliation.
“They stopped laughing,” Bibby said.
“We don’t think about numbers,” Simon said. “We just think about putting teams away.”
“There is no team with the spurtability of Arizona,” ISU coach Kevin Stallings concluded. “Is that a word?”
It is now. And, by the way, Arizona, it is a compliment.
Stuck down here in this dusty corner of America, Arizona would develop a bunker mentality. Anything on the other side of the Catalina Mountains is the East, and the East is where Duke and North Carolina are.
“They’ve been ranked ahead of us all season,” Bibby said. “We’ll just have to win it again to get any respect.”
Guess so.