MINNEAPOLIS - When college basketball season began last October 15, two teams were on top.

Five months and seventeen days later, the same Arizona and Duke teams are the lone survivors.

Beginning the season ranked as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in nearly every national poll, the Wildcats and Blue Devils took very different paths to arrive at tonight's national championship game, but through the perplexities of the season, here they are, still standing.

So, on this date with destiny, according to senior forward Gene Edgerson, the Wildcats will have to strap on their armor for a battle in Minneapolis.

"It couldn't be any more fitting that we're playing Duke in this game," Edgerson said. "It is going to be a battle of epic proportions, kind of like a gladiator competition.