Basketball

Tonight’s Big Apple NIT title game between second-ranked Arkansas and No. 3 Arizona could be a preview of the NCAA championship game in Indianapolis.

Arkansas and Arizona each have won three tournament games impressively, averaging more than 100 points per game.

“They’re quicker, we’re bigger,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said after the Wildcats had handed Notre Dame its worst defeat in nearly nine years, 91-61, in the semifinals. “The biggest thing is the quickness aspect, but I don’t think we’re slow.”

After his Blue Devils lost, 98-88, to Arkansas, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said: “It was a chaotic game. No five-man team can beat them. They have athletes like we’ve never seen.”