Simon Helps Olson Win It by a Hair

They were a fifth-place team and a No. 4 seed with a supposedly third-rate coach that lost their last two games entering the tournament.

How the Arizona Wildcats counted down to No. 1 after all that is a story Coach Lute Olson will be telling the grandchildren he couldn’t bear to leave when Kentucky offered him its coaching job in 1985 and 1989.

In a breakneck, hold-your-breath national title game that won’t be soon forgotten, the Arizona Wildcats made 10 free throws and no baskets in overtime Monday night to beat the Kentucky Wildcats, 84-79, to win their first national title and deny Kentucky its seventh before 47,028 at the RCA Dome.

In the span of five crazed overtime minutes, Olson transformed from the coach who couldn’t win the big one--a three-time, first-round NCAA loser in this decade--to a coach with as many national titles as the hallowed Rick Pitino.

After the final buzzer, Arizona forward Bennett Davison ran over and messed up Olson’s well-coiffed silver locks, a fitting metaphor for a coach who at last could let his hair down.

“I’m still having difficulty believing this is happening,” Olson said. “We’ve had other teams here, outstanding teams, more experienced teams, but this group from the get-go has been such a pleasure to work with.”

Of his detractors?

“I’ll go to my grave with some people talking about losses,” Olson said. “I feel badly for them.”

Arizona (25-9) became the 15th national champion from the Pacific 10 Conference and the first team other than UCLA since California in 1959.

Arizona became the first team to win a national title by defeating three top-seeded teams in the tournament and, once again, the young Wildcats did not shy from a more storied opponent.

They were not daunted by Kentucky’s vaunted full-court defense, easily solving the press with their quartet of guards--Mike Bibby, Miles Simon, Jason Terry and Michael Dickerson.

Arizona committed 18 turnovers, only two more than Kentucky (35-5).

The key to victory was Simon, the junior guard, who scored 14 of his game-high 30 points at the foul line.

With Kentucky overplaying his three-point shot, Simon instead beat his man off the dribble and drew fouls in the lane.

“They were giving us the penetration all night,” he said.

The game was close from beginning to end, with no team leading by more than six points until Simon’s two free throws with 13.8 seconds left in overtime put his team up by eight.

Arizona thought it had won the game in regulation after Bibby’s two foul shots with 1:01 left extended the lead to four at 72-68.

But Kentucky quickly cut the lead to one on Ron Mercer’s three-point shot with 51 seconds left. After Davison scored on an assist from Bibby with 18 seconds left to push the lead to three, Anthony Epps sent the game into overtime with his three-pointer with 12 seconds remaining.

“They hit two, incredible shots,” Simon said of the two Kentucky three-point baskets. “Mercer, if I was any closer I would have fouled him.”

It was fitting that Arizona won the game in overtime at the foul line.

Arizona, with its quick lineup of slashers and cutters, shot 24 more free throws than Kentucky, a subject sure to be raised for years to come in Lexington.

But Pitino wasn’t crying foul.

“Obviously, what hurt us were those up-and-under moves by Miles Simon,” Pitino said. “Miles Simon shot 17 three throws. That was a big number for us.”

Arizona scored the first five points in overtime on two free throws by Davison, one by Donnell Harris and two by Jason Terry.

Kentucky’s first points in the overtime came with 1:45 left on an Epps’ spin shot to cut the lead to three at 79-76.

But Arizona closed out the game with five more free throws, four by Simon in the final 41 seconds.

As the clock wound down, Simon fell to his knees and cradled the ball like a baby.

“I just knelt down on the ball,” Simon said. “It was such a war. This is the most unbelievable thing I have ever done.”

Kentucky fans stood shellshocked in the arena, still disbelieving of the history they were denied. Kentucky was trying to become the first team to defend its national title since Duke in 1991 and 1992. Kentucky was also trying to win consecutive titles for the first time since its “Fab Five” teams of 1948 and ’49 under Coach Adolph Rupp.

While disappointed to lose, Pitino was quick to realize how improbable his team’s return to the title game was after losing four starters from last season’s team and star guard Derek Anderson, injured in January.

“I’m not even a bit disappointed,” Pitino contended afterward. “It’s the same feeling as winning the championship. We didn’t win the championship, we don’t have the first-place trophy, but I’m just as proud of this year’s team as I was of last year’s, maybe even more.”

Arizona, with no seniors in the starting lineup, was supposed to be a year away.

So, perhaps, was Bibby. But the splendid freshman guard is the impatient type.

Jitters? Bibby finished with 19 points and had nine rebounds.

He performed all season under the tension of playing in the same conference where his estranged father, Henry, coached.

Henry Bibby was not in attendance for his son’s crowning moment, but Mike Bibby spoke afterward about winning the title for the father-figure in his life: Lute Olson.

“I think he was bound to win one,” Bibby said of Olson. “I was going to try and win one for him while I was here.”

Now, Bibby and his teammates have the chance to do it all again next year and erase the doubts about Olson forever.

“I’m just happy to be on the team that won it with him,” Harris said.

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LEADERS OF THE PAC

Number of NCAA men’s basketball championships per conference.

Pac-10: 15

Big Ten: 9

ACC: 7

SEC: 7

Missouri Valley Conf.: 4