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NCAA - West
March 24, 2003
SALT LAKE CITY -- Humbled and relieved, Arizona advanced to the round of 16 with an appreciation of just how fortunate it is to still be in the NCAA Tournament.
Now the Wildcats get a chance to catch their breath.
When players on both teams collapsed Saturday night in exultation or despair after two thrilling overtimes, top-seeded Arizona had beaten ninth-seeded Gonzaga 96-95.
"I think this was one of the best games of all time," Wildcats point guard Jason Gardner said. "I wasn't ready for my career to end."
Saturday's game featured great plays, big shots and missed opportunities. If hanging on in a close one is a required course for an NCAA champion, Arizona made the grade.
When it was over, Luke Walton applauded the Bulldogs.
"They could have won that game as easily as we could have," he said. "They played as hard as we did. They played as tough as we did."
The victory wasn't secure until Walton grabbed the rebound of Blake Stepp's 8-foot bank shot and the horn sounded.
"When I saw him do that up-fake to go into that leaner, my heart just stopped for a second," Walton said. "When that ball came off, my heart started beating again."
ROAD TRIP: When it comes to making impressive drives at the NCAA Tournament, it's hard to top the Cornette family.
With sons playing for Butler and Notre Dame in separate regions, Joel Sr. and Christi Cornette decided they didn't want to miss a minute, even if it meant making an eight-hour drive each day.
"We kind of took it in stages, and it turned into this," Christi said.
They left their Cincinnati home Thursday and drove two hours to Indianapolis, where they saw son Jordan and Notre Dame beat Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Older son Joel, a Butler big man, then called.
"He asked, 'Are you coming?' " his dad said. "We said, 'What do you think?' "
So it was back into their SUV and, after sleeping four hours in a Kentucky hotel, they rolled into Birmingham to watch Joel help Butler beat Mississippi State on Friday night.
With hardly any rest, they hit the road for Indianapolis and made it in time to watch Notre Dame defeat Illinois on Saturday. Not finished yet, the Cornettes piled back into the car and, after a brief stop in Cincinnati to check on a younger son, rolled into Alabama to see Butler upset Louisville 79-71 Sunday afternoon.
"How could we miss this?" Joel Sr. said. "It's been worth it, especially because we won four games."
REASSURANCE: Kansas coach Roy Williams had a word for his team's second-round performance: sensational.
When his Jayhawks are running and making shots as they did in Saturday night's 108-76 win over Arizona State, they look too good to beat.
After a tough first-round win over Utah State, Kansas rediscovered the high-octane offense that propelled it to the Big 12 regular-season title and had it expecting a No. 1 seed.
Kansas overwhelmed the Sun Devils to earn its third trip in three years to the region semifinals. The Jayhawks, the No. 2 seed in the West, travel to Anaheim, Calif., to play Duke on Thursday.
"It was the performance we hoped we'd have," Williams said. "We'll enjoy it for the next 24 hours or so, but we want to stay hungry. They (Duke) have been one of the great powers for the last 10 or 12 years."