By
Keith Carmona
Arizona Daily Wildcat
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.
"When we step into the ring tomorrow night, Duke and Arizona are going to be exchanging some serious blows. In order to win the fight, we've got to avoid their punches and start slugging right back."
The gladiators on the UA and Duke lineups are two of the more battle-tested in college basketball this season, though for very different reasons.
While Arizona had to regain composure from the emotional turmoil of losing Bobbi Olson, their Coach's wife, the Blue Devils were sitting ducks atop the national polls for a greater part of the year.
The Wildcats found a way to play their best basketball when it mattered most, winning 20 of their last 22 games, while Duke overcame a foot injury to sophomore forward Carlos Boozer and the rigors of the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule and the ACC Tournament . Through it all, both emerge as the finalists for a prize that each have coveted all season.
"There is nothing that we can do to recreate the passion that the Wildcats feel for Coach Olson's wife," Duke senior forward Shane Battier said. "What we can do is create our own emotion, run our own race. There is no doubt that this is going to be an emotional game for both side because we've both worked so hard to get to this point."
The Wildcats' armory is as strong as it is diverse. All five UA starters average double-digit scoring. The Wildcats have guards who can pound you from the outside and have post players that conquer opponents in the paint.
"This is the scariest group of players that we will have faced all season," Duke senior forward Shane Battier said. "Just when you thought you've stopped (guards) Gardner and Arenas, you have Loren Woods and Michael Wright beating you up in the low post. I will be surprised if I don't come out of this game hurting really badly, maybe even wearing some war bruises."
As attack-minded as the Wildcats will need to be to defeat Duke, the nation's most productive team, they must be wary of the counterpunch.
The Blue Devil offense is a quick-hitting attack led by Battier and sophomore guard Jason Williams.
Battier, the National Player of the Year, boasts a three-point shot, inside moves and defensive aggressiveness in his arsenal. Williams, a consensus All-American, has the fire-at-will command from his coach. And much to opponents'disappointment, he hits 45 percent of his three-point attempts.
That number becomes even scarier considering he's taken 289 shots from behind the three-point arc this season.
"They're just a very hungry team, you don't see many teams who want to win as much as Duke," Edgerson said. "It's something in the character, their personality that makes them work very hard in practice and in games. When they get down, they don't get flustered, they rise to the challenge."
Both teams are baring the wounds of the tournament's harshness. Duke freshman guard Chris Duhon suffered a mild concussion in Saturday's win against Maryland, while Arenas is recovering from a contusion on his upper chest. Both Arenas and Duhon are scheduled to start tonight.
The Blue Devils' resilience is exactly what head coach Mike Krzyzewski prides his team on.
Saturday night, the Blue Devils rebounded from a 20-point deficit in the first-half to beat Maryland 95-84.
"It seems like you could be up by 70 points with three minutes left, and Duke could probably find a way to get back into the game," Jefferson said. "When they are behind, something goes off in their head that sends them on a mission. And at that point, they are an amazing force, not to be reckoned with."
Though Jefferson doesn't foresee a blowout, he said that his team won't let the Blue Devils sneak back in.
"Duke has had a lot of battles in the last few games, but you can only flirt with fire so much before you get burned," he said. "If we get a 20-point lead on Duke, we won't lose the game. I can promise you that."
