COMMENTARY

By Mike DeCourcy

updated 6:28 p.m. ET March 25, 2005

CHICAGO - On one bench you had a guy with 1,019 games worth of experience and 721 wins, Eddie Sutton. Near the other bench stood the guy with a mere 990 college games and 740 victories, Lute Olson.

And they went after each other with trick defenses, in-game adjustments, timeout calls and all the other mental gymnastics a great coach can conjure.

All of that mattered for 39 minutes, 55 seconds. From then on, those guys had as much to do with what transpired in the NCAA tournament regional semifinal between Arizona and Oklahoma State as the guy in row 3, as Dick Enberg sitting courtside describing the action, as you sitting in front of your television. Sutton and Olson became spectators. The game, at that moment, belonged to the Wildcats' Salim Stoudamire.

FREE VIDEO Down to the last shot March 25: Arizona coach Lute Olson, Wildcat story Salim Stoudamire, Oklahoma State star John Lucas and coach Eddie Sutton discuss Thursday night’s game. NBC Sports

His coach called a play, because that is what coaches do. With Arizona trailing by a point, Olson ordered a side pick-and-roll, big man Channing Frye screening for Stoudamire to the left of the foul lane. "I didn't like that," Stoudamire said.

With zero games of coaching experience, but two prior game-winning shots behind him this season, he knew precisely what would come of that call. The two Cowboys defenders would blitz off that screen like Jack Lambert and Dick Butkus, driving him backward, and Stoudamire would be left with no choice but to dump a pass to Frye.

Yeah, sure.

This was Salim. This was not the best shooter in college basketball this season. This was the best college shooter in a generation. This was the guy who won the Arizona State game and clinched a Pac-10 regular season title with a pull-up jumper; who nailed a 3-pointer in the final seconds to complete a comeback against UCLA. This was the guy who'd finally shaken off the brilliant defense presented by Oklahoma State's Daniel Bobik to score nine points in a crucial 4-minute stretch. There was only one choice.

Slide show   March 27 See images from the wins by Michigan State and North Carolina on Day 8 of the NCAA Tournament.

"I kind of gave Bobik a little hesitation, crossed him over," Stoudamire said, "and I just pulled up on the baseline."

You think that was the end of it? Goodness, no. Because Bobik wasn't all that fooled. He knew what was coming. He stayed in the play. He kept his hands high, his body directly between Stoudamire and the basket.

"What could you do?" he said. "The guy shoots 90 percent from the free throw line, so you know he could go to the basket. They're in the double bonus, and so he could try to get fouled and make something happen. All I was trying to do was stay in front of him and not foul, make him take a tough shot. That's exactly what he did. I felt like he'd be short, because he was shooting on the way down."

And that double-team Stoudamire feared? He was in its grip. Oklahoma State forward Terrence Crawford reasoned that the ball was not coming back to Frye, so he left his assignment behind and hustled over to help out Bobik.

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