NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: THE FINAL FOUR : Remaining Big Two Are From the Big Eight : Oklahoma’s Press Blows Away Arizona

Pressure, as applied by Oklahoma, can be a subtle thing--a wearing-down process, preventing an opponent from playing at its own comfortable pace.

That’s what happened, in part, to Arizona Saturday night at Kemper Arena, where the Sooners won, 86-78, to advance to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. final game Monday night against Kansas in an all-Big Eight Conference showdown.

Kansas beat Duke, 66-59, in an earlier semifinal game.

Arizona’s players had said earlier that they could play at any pace, fast or slow. That had had been proven during the season--a 35-2 record and a 15-game winning streak going into the Oklahoma game.

Moreover, Arizona had not been seriously challenged in four previous tournament games. The closest margin was an 18-point victory over North Carolina.

But Lute Olson’s team had not encountered a team with the overall athletic ability of Oklahoma this season.

That was evident in the middle portion of the first half when Oklahoma outscored Arizona, 27-10, to take a 39-27 lead at halftime.

Arizona is unaccustomed to trailing at halftime but it didn’t fold, pulling within three points of Oklahoma, 51-48, with 12:50 remaining and then making another surge to trail, 58-54, with 8:08 left.

That’s when the Sooners, now 35-3, put the game away with a 12-3 run. It took about a half-hour for the teams to play the final 2 1/2 minutes as Oklahoma protected its lead with a steady parade to the free throw line.

So the Pac-One, as the Pacific 10 conference was known because of Arizona’s domination, is now the Pac-None. It was a nice run while it lasted, though.

In the final analysis, Arizona couldn’t contain 6-foot 10-inch center Stacey King or 6-8 forward Harvey Grant. The two Sooners each scored 21 points, getting their shots off quickly from medium range.

King didn’t even play the final nine minutes. He picked up his fourth foul, and Coach Billy Tubbs left him on the bench. Tubbs said he would have sent him back into the game if it was close in the final minutes, which it wasn’t.

Andre Wiley did a creditable job as King’s replacement, and Tubbs had no reason to disturb the chemistry. Wiley, a junior forward from Flint, Mich., had 17 quality minutes, scoring 11 points and grabbing 4 rebounds.

The Sooners are deep, just like the wishbone-oriented football team.

Sean Elliott, Arizona’s All-American forward, performed like one to a certain extent. He scored a game-high 31 points on 13-of-23 shooting. But he also committed 6 of his team’s 15 turnovers.

Not all of the turnovers were forced as Elliott was cited for traveling on some occasions. Oklahoma’s Dave Sieger tracked Elliott for most of the game and said the Arizona forward was the best player he has ever played against.

But Elliott didn’t get much support from his teammates, as he has in other games.

Guard Steve Kerr, who came into the game shooting 60% from three-point range, made only 2 of 12 three-point shots. Center Tom Tolbert had an unproductive first half, scoring only 2 points. He finished with 11.

Oklahoma had been harassing opponents into an average of 24 turnovers a game. Arizona was well under that figure, with only 6 in the second half.

But the Wildcats seemed out of sync, especially in the first half, even when they beat the press. They rushed shots and couldn’t sustain a rhythm that identified the team throughout the season.

“The transition game puts an incredible strain on your body,” Elliott said. “I was just trying to keep up with everyone in the first half.”

Kerr said he missed three-point shots that he normally makes, addding that the pace of the game took something out of his legs.

Olson said: “I said yesterday at a pregame press conference that if anyone thinks that Oklahoma doesn’t play defense, they aren’t aware of what defense is. They apply tremendous full-court pressure, and it wasn’t over even when our kids got past half-court.

“They’re scrappers and have tremendous endurance. I think the key to the game came right after halftime. We did an exceptional job of getting right back into the game, and then they made a couple of hustle plays and we had a couple of critical turnovers.”

Even so, Arizona was still very much in the game while trailing, 58-54, with King already riding the bench.

Then, Grant made a short jump shot, and guard Mookie Blaylock followed with a layup after a turnover. Elliott traveled, and Sieger responded with a garbage basket inside.

The 12-3 run continued until Oklahoma built its lead to 70-57 with 4:17 remaining. Elliott’s three-point basket was the extent of Arizona’s offense while Oklahoma was again taking command of the game.

Tubbs, who has filled reporters’ notebooks during the tournament with whimsical remarks while feigning ignorance of the game’s finer points, played it straight in the postgame press conference.

“It was a great win for us against what I consider an outstanding team,” he said. “‘We played well at times and we played spotty at times and we couldn’t ever really put them away. Andre Wiley was a big key for us when Stacey King got into foul trouble.”

Oklahoma beat Kansas twice during the regular season, but hasn’t routed Larry Brown’s team, winning, 73-65 and 95-87.

“I watched Kansas play the first half (against Duke) and I thought they played great,” Tubbs said. “I can’t comment on the second half because I didn’t see it.

“We were pulling for Kansas, and I don’t want you to take that to mean that we think they’re the easiest team to play. We were a little partial in pulling for Kansas. We all have a little loyalty to each other in the Big Eight.

“It’s great for the Big Eight family and it shows what we’ve known all along, that the Big Eight is a great conference.”

He could have added that his own team is deserving of superlatives. The Sooners came into the game averaging 104 points, but they can play at any tempo as evidenced by their 78-59 victory over Villanova in a Southeast Regional final game. Villanova controlled the tempo for a while with a four-corners, delayed-type offense, but Oklahoma prevailed, as usual.

“We just lost to a better team tonight,” Tolbert said. “They were the best team we’ve played all season, no question about that.”

Arizona had beaten some of the nation’s better teams, such as Michigan, Syracuse, Iowa (twice), Duke and North Carolina.

But Oklahoma distorts the game with its relentless pressure, and it’s often a frustrating experience for the opposition.

For example, Arizona came into the game as the nation’s best field-goal shooting team at 54.8%. They shot only 44.4% against the Sooners, who were 46.9%.

The Wildcats were also the country’s best three-point shooting team at 49.3%. With Kerr throwing up bricks, Arizona was only 6 for 23, or 26.1%.

Arizona also had out-rebounded 37 previous opponents by an average of five a game. They out-rebounded Oklahoma, 41-34, but not in a meaningful first half when the Sooners had a 19-13 advantage.

Oklahoma just alters all those glowing statistics.