Matchups Are Right Down Main Street for Anaheim

The Road to New Orleans runs through Anaheim, which is one more reason why college basketball dreams should never be confused with real life.

New Orleans has Bourbon Street, Anaheim has Katella Avenue.

New Orleans has Cajun crawfish, Anaheim has the rally monkey.

New Orleans has smoky jazz and gritty blues, Anaheim has “It’s a Small World After All.”

But college basketball can be a great equalizer, if only for a few days, and during the course of this NCAA tournament, Anaheim can lay claim to a few things New Orleans would be hard-pressed to match.

Namely, Arizona, Duke, Kansas and Notre Dame.

In most years, that’s a pretty good-looking Final Four -- three traditional powers and the football school-turned-Cinderella, proving that life does exist away from the blocking sleds on the spring practice field.

This year, that’s the lineup for the West Regional, coming to Anaheim and the Pond on Thursday and Saturday.

Arizona, Duke, Kansas and Notre Dame -- owners of six NCAA basketball championships, many trips to the Final Four, some of the most famous legends to ever appear inside a college gymnasium ... and a few Heisman Trophies too.

Arizona, champion in ’97 and finalist in ‘01, got this far as expected, albeit via the road less traveled -- Saturday’s 96-95 double-overtime thriller over Gonzaga, the most exciting thing to happen in Salt Lake City since the introduction of lime Jell-O.

Duke, three-time champion, most recently in 2001, arrived after an end-to-end sprint through Central Michigan, an 86-60 victory that reduced the tournament’s remaining “mid-major” population to one -- a very solitary Butler.

Kansas, champion in ’52 and ’88 and still chasing its first title under Coach Roy Williams, booked its passage to Orange County by returning Arizona State to the desert, 108-76.

They will be joined by Notre Dame, which once again relied on its ability to watch opposing players blow easy layups -- this time, the culprit was Dee Brown -- during a 68-60 triumph over Illinois.

This, Southland basketball fans, is the consolation prize for the dog of a local regular season that never made it out of the kennel.

If high-quality college basketball is your desire, and you’ve suddenly stopped growing your own, there is one other available option: You import it. Bring in the Wooden Classic, the Pacific 10 tournament, an overloaded West Regional. Reacquaint the people with the concept again.

Watching from afar, we saw Arizona, which lost only twice from November through February, almost lose for the second time in 10 days. First, UCLA in the first round of Pac-10 tournament, then Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAAs ... almost in regulation ... almost in the first overtime ... almost in the final seconds of the second extra period.

Gonzaga, which deserves a lifetime pass to the NCAA tournament, and probably a trip to the Sweet 16, tracked the Wildcats relentlessly for 40 minutes, forced overtime and had the ball in the hands of its best shooter, Blake Stepp, with chances to win at the end of both overtimes.

The Bulldogs also got unlucky in the game’s final 90 seconds, when Gonzaga’s Richard Fox forced an airball with the shot clock winding down and Arizona’s Jason Gardner chased down the loose ball and dribbled it twice before falling down and losing the ball to the Bulldogs, apparently with a fresh 35-second shot clock.

But no, officials ruled that Gardner did not have possession. The shot clock kept running, Gonzaga attempted a hurried shot that did not draw iron, and the Bulldogs were cited for a shot-clock violation.

Ball to Arizona, which proceeded to burn enough time off the game clock to turn Gonzaga’s final trip downcourt into a chaotic sequence of hurried shots -- Tony Skinner’s jumper kicking off the rim, Stepp’s scrambling follow-up bank shot caroming off the glass.

By that much, the Pac-10 avoided an 0-4 Saturday sweep. Oregon set an ominous tone with its ragged loss to Utah Friday, unleashing a kind of funk that none of the conference’s remaining representatives could entirely avoid.

Stanford gave it go for a while against Connecticut, but eventually was worn down by the Huskies’ superior depth, 85-74.

California and Arizona State never got going. The Golden Bears were overwhelmed from the outset in a 74-65 loss to Oklahoma and the Sun Devils, so impressive in their first-round upset of Memphis, looked tired and out of their league against a Kansas team that had sweated out a three-point victory over Big West champion Utah State in the first round.

Thursday at the Pond, Duke will play Kansas in a matchup that sounds as if it was arranged two rounds too soon. In the day’s other West semifinal, it will be Arizona against Notre Dame.

The Road to New Orleans remains the foremost concern to everyone still involved. But according to this map, the Offramp in Anaheim should be something to see.