Arizona’s Bennett Davison celebrates with fans after beating Kentucky 84-79 in overtime to win the 1997 national championship.

 Eric Draper, Associated Press 1997

Editor’s note: Today marks the 25th anniversary of Arizona’s 1997 national championship win over Kentucky in men’s basketball.

The original crowd of 8,328 at the dreary Memphis Pyramid was less than half that when Arizona and South Alabama tipped off the fourth NCAA Tournament game of the day. The clock ticked close to 11 p.m.

American was sleeping on Arizona and its chances to make any noise in the Big Dance.

It was March 13, 1997. At halftime, with Arizona trailing 28-26, I phoned the sports desk to confirm my weekend plans. I was told to fly to Atlanta the next morning to cover the Arizona-Western Kentucky women’s NCAA Tournament opener.

“What if I can’t get back to Memphis in time for Sunday’s game?” i asked.

“There might not be a second game in Memphis,” I was told. “Just stay in Georgia and cover the women’s second game.”

Such was the faith in Arizona’s 1996-97 men’s basketball team. The Wildcats finished fifth in the Pac-10, their lowest finish under Lute Olson from 1985 until his retirement. The lure of an ascending women’s basketball program — coach Joan Bonvicini led the Wildcats to their first-ever NCAA Tournament — led me to rebook my plans.

Arizona trailed South Alabama 53-43 with 7:34 remaining. The clock was about to strike midnight again, a thoroughly unpleasant thought. A sense of negativity settled in as I thought back to recent first-round losses to East Tennessee State, Santa Clara and Miami of Ohio. This one might be worse than all combined.

It was well past midnight in Tennessee when South Alabama coach Bill Musselman walked quietly into the NCAA media room. “We had them,” he said with a tone of regret. “We had them.”

As it turned out, the Wildcats rallied to beat the Jaguars 65-57. As Musselman lamented his team’s collapse, no one could have imagined that 18 days later Arizona would be national champions.

I began to worry about my flight plans. Could I possibly get back to Memphis for Saturday’s Round of 32 game against College of Charleston, a surprise winner over Maryland? I could.

It was a repeat of the South Alabama game. Wall-to-wall drama. With four seconds remaining, Arizona led 71-69. But Cougars guard Jermel President broke loose for a 3-point shot. The ball seemed to hang in the air forever. It bounced off the rim. Arizona was on to the Sweet 16.

Thus began Arizona’s unanticipated and astonishing burst to the national championship, the most celebrated period in the history of UA sports.

By the time Olson returned to Tucson to prepare for a Sweet 16 game against No. 1 Kansas, he came off more as a conqueror than a survivor.

When ESPN called the Arizona-Kansas game a “David vs. Goliath” affair, Olson appeared insulted.

“Who’s David and who’s Goliath?” he said before leaving for Birmingham, Alabama, for a Sweet 16 game against the 34-1 Jayhawks.

A quarter-century later, bold headlines in the Kansas City Star still reflect the shock-value of Arizona’s 85-82 upset over Kansas:

MARCH SADNESS

THE BITTER END

NO MORE NO. 1

A sub-headline declared KU to be “the best team that never won it all.”

Arizona fans go crazy late in the the second half against Kentucky in the championship game.

It was too late for the ’97 Wildcats to turn back. After they beat Providence in overtime to reach the Final Four, they faced perhaps the most menacing Final Four threesome ever: No. 1 seeds North Carolina and Kentucky, and 31-3 Minnesota, the greatest team in Golden Gopher history.

Played at the RCA Dome in downtown Indianapolis, Arizona was cast as the Other Guy. The Indianapolis Star polled 24 college basketball insiders and asked them to vote on the winner. Here’s how it turned out:

Kentucky, 11

North Carolina, 10

Minnesota, 3

Arizona, 0

The Wildcats then created more unhappy headlines after thumping the Tar Heels 66-58. The Raleigh News and Observer published the following headline:

NIGHTMARE IN INDY

“The RCA Dome has become purgatory for the Tar Heels,” the newspaper wrote.

Before the championship game against 35-3 Kentucky, an ESPN panel of six college basketball experts — Chris Fowler, Dick Vitale, Digger Phelps, Dick Schaap, Mike Lupica and John Feinstein — predicted Kentucky by a unanimous 6-0 landslide.

I looked into the vast audience at the RCA Dome — the crowd of 47,028 is the largest ever to watch an Arizona basketball game — and saw famous faces everywhere: John Wooden, Kevin Costner, Ted Danson, Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott. Two weeks after its unlikely survival games against South Alabama and College of Charleston, Arizona was the center of attention.

A day earlier, UA assistant coach Phil Johnson told me that Arizona’s improbable run could be remembered as one of the epic events in college history. “We need one more,” Johnson said. “But if we win, it’ll be like we had three national championship games.”

Arizona won 84-79 in overtime. The headlines changed. The Indianapolis Star wrote:

INDY STRUCTIBLE

NO. 1 SA-LUTE

In Kentucky, a headline in the Lexington Herald Leader reflected UK’s post-game sorrow.

PEACE KEPT, FANS WEPT

The newspaper wrote that Arizona’s national championship was absurd. “A young team with a senior-less starting lineup, a team from a remote place on the map, a team that drew a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, rises up, wins it all.”

But it wasn’t absurd at all. It was a fairy tale come true. Arizona would no longer be a remote place on the basketball map.

Late that night — actually, it was early the next morning — as I exited the RCA Dome, I passed Mike Bibby and Miles Simon, celebrating outside of a Steak ’n Shake with scores of UA fans. By noon that day, Bibby and Simon were engulfed by an estimated 48,000 fans at Arizona Stadium, holding the national championship trophy.

When I checked out of the downtown Omni Hotel early that morning, wondering if I could keep my eyes open for a three-hour drive to O’Hare Airport in Chicago, I handed the front desk clerk my room key.

“Checking out of room 711,” I said.

I laughed at the irony of it. My lucky number has forever been 711. It’s my birthday. And now, every time I check into a hotel for an Arizona NCAA Tournament game, I ask if room 711 is available.

You can dream, can’t you?

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Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at 520-573-4362 or ghansen@tucson.com. On Twitter: @ghansen711

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