Midway through the second half of their first round game, Lute Olson found his Arizona Wildcats down by 10 to Bill Musselman's 13th seeded South Alabama Jaguars. Olson needed someone on his team to step up and get his team back into the game. He wanted to turn to his star player, give him the ball and ask him to win the game for him, like he did with Damon Stoudamire and Sean Elliot, but he couldn't, cause that player wasn't there.
Arizona did not lose that night. Instead, they ended the game with a 22-4 run that would start the momentum that would eventually carry them to tonight's national championship game.
Olson didn't turn to a particular player on that night, but he turned to his team, and the team responded. They went on to do the unthinkable and beat Kansas, the best team in the nation, and also beat North Carolina, arguably the hottest team in the nation going in to Saturday's semifinal.
Great players make a team good, but only great teamwork can take a team to the next level, and for the past five games, Arizona has been playing at a different level.
With the early departures of collegiate superstars into the NBA, the nature of the college game has shifted to emphasize the team game more so than it has in recent memory. College basketball has learned that it cannot try to thrive on the personality and play of its superstars anymore, as it started to do in the 1980's and early '90s, because more and more of these players are leaving early.
Now, schools must focus more heavily on defense, passing, and all the other elements that transform a group of nine or 10 young men into a strong, cohesive team. In many cases, the nature of coaching has turned as well, from baby-sitting young superstars till they're ready to go to the NBA to molding a team, and establishing relationships with players.
In a sense, college basketball is more pure now. I know that corruption exists in many college campuses, and schools make millions of dollars off of college athletics, but the game itself has become more exciting, and more about basketball, not about scoring 40 points, or grabbing 25 rebounds.
Most of the "experts" had Arizona bowing out early, as is their reputation. I myself picked Arizona to lose that game to South Alabama, and I was fairly confident that they would. Nobody thought they could beat Kansas, and on paper, no team in America could match up to Kansas. But what can't be seen on paper are elements like heart, desire, confidence and teamwork that can overcome matchup difficulties and experience.
Facing Arizona in tonight's game is Rick Pitino's Kentucky Wildcats. What Pitino has done with this ball club is truly remarkable and is a testament to his coaching ability. Kentucky lost three players to the NBA draft, and then lost co-captain and leading scorer Derek Anderson at the beginning of the season with knee problems.
Pitino's Kentucky ball club is another example of a team that exhibits great teamwork and composure. Although Kentucky does have a superstar in Ron Mercer, he is a product of the Kentucky system, rather than Kentucky being molded around his play.
When Derek Anderson was cleared by doctors to play in the tournament, Pitino would not let him play, mostly because he didn't want to endanger Anderson's professional future, but also because his addition might interrupt the flow of Kentucky's team game.
Similarly, when Miles Simon, Arizona's captain and emotional leader, returned to the team after missing games because of academic reasons in the beginning of the season, the team proceeded to lose games because the flow was interrupted.
The team game has come back full force in collegiate basketball and tonight, the sport's national champion will be crowned. Both teams have traveled long, difficult roads to get to Indianapolis and regardless of who wins and who loses, they'll do it as a team.
