Sports: NCAA notebook

NCAA notebook

By BRIAN LANDMAN and Times wires

Wildcats still thinking about Bobbi Olson

MINNEAPOLIS -- Arizona coach Lute Olson knows the death of his wife, Bobbi, on Jan. 1 has had a profound effect on his team. Good and bad.

The Wildcats, who dedicated the rest of the season to her, say she's still their "guardian angel." But they have had to endure constant questions about how they handled the tragedy.

Especially here.

"I'm sure somewhere during that game, all the hardships we've had to endure will pop up in everyone's mind," senior forward Eugene Edgerson said when asked before the game if the players would be thinking of Bobbi. "It's kind of hard to say how you'll actually feel until that buzzer goes off at the end of the game."

Olson said he hopes his wife's death also will have a profound effect on women everywhere. Only for the good.

"I just hope that women will become more aware of the ovarian cancer threat," he said, adding that he and his family plan to help spread the word about the disease. "I'm hopeful that we'll be able to have some effect on battling that disease."

BOOZER'S RETURN: Carlos Boozer wondered whether his season was over a month ago when he broke a bone in his right foot. Fitting in at the Final Four was the last thing on his mind.

But with Duke shooting poorly from the outside once again, the 6-foot-9 sophomore fit perfectly Monday night.

Boozer, playing his most minutes since his injury Feb. 27, scored 12 points and added 12 rebounds for the Blue Devils.

It was only the fourth double-double by Boozer this season but by far the biggest of his career. It followed a 19-point effort against Maryland in Saturday's semifinals.

Some wondered if Duke was a better team without Boozer in the lineup, considering it went 9-0 without him as a starter down the stretch, won the Atlantic Coast Conference title for a third straight time and took the first two NCAA tournament games.

But Boozer was 12-for-17 from the field in the Final Four, and it was his defense inside that helped the Blue Devils clamp down.

TIES THAT BIND: Not only did Arizona center Loren Woods play against Duke several times during his first two seasons at Wake Forest, but he has a stronger tie to that program. One of his teammates at St. Louis Cardinal Ritter High was former Duke star Chris Carrawell.

"He's always going to cheer for me," Woods said. "He's like a brother to me. Whether or not he'll cheer for Arizona, I don't know."

HONORARY MEMBER: The Blue Devils should be granted status as an honorary part of the Pac-10. They had to play UCLA and Southern California in the East Region semifinal and final, respectively, then Arizona in Monday's championship. And they played Stanford during the regular season.

"They're all good," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said before Monday's game. "It shows the strength of their conference. ... I can see why their teams become so good because they play against each other like that."

REMEMBER WHEN: The last time the preseason AP No. 1 and No. 2 teams met for the title was 1999 (when Duke met Connecticut) at Tropicana Field. The Huskies upset Duke, 77-74.

"You look back on '99, people were talking about us as one of the great teams of all time," Duke's Shane Battier said. "The game pressure that was on us was unbelievable. This year, I don't feel that pressure, especially going against an Arizona team that is as good as they are."

DID YOU KNOW?: When Arizona won the 1997 title, it had to beat three No. 1 seeds: Kansas, 85-52, in the Southeast Region semifinal, North Carolina, 66-58, in the national semifinal, and Kentucky, 84-79 in overtime in the final. This year, it beat No. 1 seed Illinois in the Midwest Region final and the South's No. 1 seed, Michigan State, on Saturday before losing to the East's top seed, Duke.