NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Touch of Tolbert Raises Arizona to Final Four, 70-52

With all 256 pounds of the great J.R. Reid crashing down upon him, Arizona center Tom Tolbert flipped the ball back over his head toward the basket, hoping to get himself two free throws for his trouble. The ball glanced off the glass, hit the front of the rim and dropped through the hoop to tie the score. Arizona went ahead by one on Tolbert’s free throw with more than 14 minutes left to play, and that was just about the last of North Carolina’s hopes.

As the crowd of 22,470 roared to life at the Kingdome Sunday, Tolbert began to frustrate Reid on the other end of the court. Tolbert made his way to Seattle from Artesia High School by way of UC Irvine, Cerritos College and the University of Arizona, and he wasn’t going to let any highly recruited superstar keep him from his final destination after all of that.

When Arizona Coach Lute Olson complimented Tolbert’s defense against Reid, Tolbert answered with a tip of his cap--his new cap with the Final Four logo and the inscription, “Goin’ to Kansas City.”

Yes, indeed. The University of Arizona is going to the Final Four for the first time. Arizona won the West Regional of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s basketball tournament with a 70-52 victory over North Carolina.

As the first Pacific 10 Conference team to make it to the Final Four since UCLA in 1980, the Wildcats are in a position to re-establish the strength of West Coast basketball. And Olson is no more backing down from that challenge than Tolbert was backing down from J.R. Reid.

Feigning a lapse in memory, Olson asked a gathering of reporters: “How many teams are there left from East of the Mississippi?”

Informed that there is just one, Duke, and that the other two contenders are Oklahoma and Kansas of the Big Eight, Olson said: “I don’t know that we have to say a whole lot more than that, maybe.

“I can’t imagine that this shouldn’t help all of us in the Pac-10 in terms of recruiting. Maybe we are making the point that you don’t have to leave family, friends and freeze your butt off and go across the country to play on a team that has a chance to reach the Final Four.”

His defensive stance has drawn a lot of criticism lately, but now that he has some facts with which to answer the naysayers, Olson is going to answer. For example: “I have heard people say, ‘How good (is Arizona) going to be when they are finally tested, when somebody is right there with them when the pressure is on,’ ” Olson said. He read from the statistics sheet in his hand: “They are going to be good enough to shoot 58.3% from the field in the second half, 81% from the free-throw line and turn the ball over two or three times in the second half. That is a pretty good indication that basketball can be played in all parts of the country, and I think it is time for people to stop taking shots at one part of the country or another part of the country.

“My understanding is that there are two Big Eight teams, one Pac-10 team and one ACC team in the finals. So there are lots of voids from the areas where people are saying all of the basketball is being played.”

There was some basketball being played in the Kingdome Sunday. The defense was chest-to-chest and the margin was a handful of points all through the first half, as Arizona stayed in a 2-3 zone and North Carolina kept the pace slow and controlled. North Carolina had a 28-26 lead at halftime.

When Arizona started the second half in a man-to-man defense, the Wildcats were able to get some turnovers and pick up the pace. The Wildcats were also able to intensify their defense to the extent that the Tar Heels, who shot just 40.7% in the first half, shot an even worse 31% in the second half.

North Carolina guard Jeff Lebo made three three-point shots in the first half. He didn’t score in the second half.

Scott Williams, a sophomore forward from Hacienda Heights Wilson, had 13 points, tops for the Tar Heels. Reid was held to 10 points, hitting just 4 of 10 from the field.

Reid made all four of his baskets with strong moves inside, getting a couple off offensive rebounds. Meanwhile, Tolbert was scoring 21 points (8 of 14 from the field) on the perfect passes that have made the Wildcats nearly unstoppable. Sean Elliott, the 6-foot 8-inch forward who even took his turn bringing the ball up the court and making some of those fine passes, scored 24 points for the Wildcats.

North Carolina Coach Dean Smith said: “Sean Elliott we couldn’t control as well as we had hoped, and he certainly was a factor. But Tolbert just put on a show in the second half. He got some awfully good passes.”

After Tolbert’s memorable three-point play with 14:09 left, the play on which Reid picked up his third foul, Reid went down to score on a rebound to give the Tar Heels their last lead of the game. Arizona guard Steve Kerr hit one of his three three-pointers to put the Wildcats ahead, and Tolbert added another three-point play similar to the first one to make it a five-point lead.

Tolbert beat Williams to the left baseline, but he held up for a split second, waiting for Williams to get into the air and make contact, and then he put in the shot.

Tolbert scored the Wildcats’ next points, too, on a looping reverse layup that completed the seven-point run.

On his behind-the-head shot from the baseline, Tolbert said: “One of my teammates got me the ball, and Steve set a screen for me. I saw Reid coming in, and he was a step late. I figured I’d give him a pump fake, and he went for it. I jumped into him a little bit, and he came down on me pretty hard. But before I hit the ground, I still had the ball, so I figured I might as well try to throw it up somewhere. I had some English on it, and it ended up going in.”

As Tolbert demonstrated on those three-point plays, the Wildcats draw fouls by design. They work at it. And then they make their free throws. It’s part of their game plan. Arizona made 23 of 28 free throws, and North Carolina made 6 of 8.

Smith said: “We’re very disappointed not to be going to the Final Four, but we still must congratulate a very experienced and very good Arizona team. The first half, I was disappointed they made so much from the foul line. I was a little concerned how they got those, but still we could have had more of a cushion. The second half we wanted to get it in to J.R. more, and I think to some degree we were successful. We missed some easy shots that sometimes we will make, but sometimes they don’t go.

“I think Arizona is certainly one of the toughest teams we’ve faced. I think we had the third- or fourth-toughest schedules in the nation. They’re just an experienced, sound team. I thought maybe we shook them a little in the beginning, but they didn’t stay shook.”

West Regional Notes

The all-tournament team was led by Arizona’s Sean Elliott, who was named the outstanding player. Also named to the team were Tom Tolbert and Steve Kerr of Arizona, J.R. Reid of North Carolina and Rumeal Robinson of Michigan. . . . Asked if he will be back next year, Reid (a sophomore) acted as if the thought of the National Basketball Assn. draft has never occurred to him and said, “Why wouldn’t I be back?” . . . The last time Lute Olson took a team to the Final Four was in 1980, when he was coaching at Iowa. Larry Brown was there in 1980, too, coaching UCLA. He’ll be in Kansas City, Mo., this week coaching Kansas.