I've been at this school for the better part of four years, and I figure I've followed the Wildcat men's basketball team since I was 14.

So when I was able to cover them this season, I perhaps broke a rule of journalism in that I was already a fan of the team. I wanted them to do well. Heck, I wanted them to win the national championship.

So, as a fan, I was disappointed when they lost Friday to Kansas in the Sweet 16. I figured if they could just get by the Jayhawks, Syracuse would certainly have been winnable, and tell me you wouldn't have liked UA's chances against Mississippi State.

(By the way, if it makes anyone feel better, Interstate 70 was shut down after the Kansas-Syracuse game because of a snow storm. Since that was the only route back to Lawrence, all the Jayhawk fans were stuck in Denver for a while after KU lost.)

I figured the team would be disappointed for that very reason in the Arizona locker room after the game € that their chance at glory was now gone.

But, like in almost every other instance this season, the team proved me wrong.

They didn't fold when they lost Joseph Blair, they didn't fall apart after an 0-2 Pacific 10 Conference start, they didn't blink when they faced four tough conference teams to conclude the regular season, and ruing their misfortune for losing a game was not on their minds after Kansas beat them.

Instead, the UA locker room was home to 10 men who talked very maturely and sincerely about what the loss meant in the big scheme of things. Both teams played hard, one of them just had to lose. They understood that, but of more importance to each and every Wildcat was making sure their teammates knew how they felt about each other.

I never heard the word 'love' more times in a half-hour than I did in that locker room. It was like being in one of those Bud Light commercials.

That outpouring was probably helped by the departure of four seniors who had just completed their college careers.

Miami heat coach Pat Riley once said, when cornered by a reporter after his New York Knicks lost the NBA Finals to Houston, that in sport, "there is winning and misery."

While that polarized view might prevail in professional sports, things are still a little more friendly on the collegiate level, although that seems to be changing fast. Coaches and teammates are still there to help each other, and players still have to go through the pressures of school that everyone else does. In a word, college sports just seem a little more 'real.'

On the 1995-96 UA men's basketball team, that perception is truly the reality.

"You can't keep your head down. I love everyone on this team, and I'd like to thank them for a great season," said Reggie Geary.

"I'm thinking about how much I'll miss these guys. A few more months of school and the summer, then that's it," Ben Davis added after the game.

It's nice to be reminded that within all the in-your-face taunting, all the hype and hoopla now surrounding men's college basketball, there's still room for nice guys. That's what this year's team had. Older guys guided the younger ones. The younger ones made the older guys laugh. Guys looked out for one another.

After Miles Simon's 70-foot shot to beat Cincinnati fades from my mind, the character of this year's team is what I will remember most.

Patrick Klein is sports editor of the Arizona Daily Wildcat.