Bennett Davison shows his excitement as the clock winds down during the Wildcats' Final Four win over North Carolina.

 David Sanders, Arizona Daily Star 1997

Twenty-five years is a long time, a full quarter century, the kind of anniversary worth writing pages about.

But for members of the 1997 Arizona men’s basketball team β€” one that would start the season with a huge win over Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Co. and finish with a national championship win over No. 1-seeded Kansas β€” it feels just like yesterday.

Here are some of the lasting memories that define that year, from the players and coaches who lived through them:

Making ’em say UNC-le

β€œThere were so many monumental moments," guard Jason Terry said. "The first for me was when we went to the (Nov. 22) Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic and played North Carolina, and they had Antawn and Vince and their point guard, Ed Carter, and Miles Simon, our leader, was ineligible. They put me in a role I and we weren’t ready for. But the first game, we knocked them out. That was a championship game in itself. We didn’t have our superstar, and we ended up playing well.”

The nonconference tests would pay off later.

"Early in the season that year, we played Utah and UConn β€” we always played a hard non conference schedule," forward A.J. Bramlett said. "That's something Coach always insisted (on). Even if we lost, he was setting us up for the tournament.

The Wildcats challenged themselves with a tough nonconference schedule, including a late-November game against New Mexico at The Pit.

Put me in, coach!

If a Nov. 30 seven-point loss to New Mexico in The Pit, one of college basketball’s toughest venues, was tough to swallow, a 73-71 overtime loss to Michigan on Dec. 21 was a slap in the face. Donnell Harris and Bibby both fouled out and Terry had four fouls. One more, and Olson would’ve been forced to turn to a walk-on in the final minutes of a tight game with a fellow blue blood.

Which walk-on is still up for debate.

β€œWe went to Detroit and got in big time foul trouble,” assistant coach Jim Rosborough said. β€œWe only had (seven) guys who were decent, so later, one day at practice, John Ash and Josh Pastner, they walked over to Coach: 'Remember in Detroit, would you have put in John or me?’ Lute (Olson) just turned and walked away, meaning neither of you idiots. They will still laugh about that one."

Ash remembers Olson delivering a biting response.

"Coach Olson was intimidating, a huge presence, we walk up to him at halfcourt, pose the question," Ash said. "(He) looks at us both and said, 'We would have played with four.'"

A sixth sense

It took until Jan. 11 for Simon to regain his academic eligibility. When that happened, Olson had a tough decision to make: Keep the sophomore Terry in the starting lineup, or reinsert Simon.

"Finally Miles Simon gets eligible, and I was maybe averaging 15 points starting," Terry said. "Coach O tells me, 'I’ll bring Miles off the bench.' I said, 'No, I’m more comfortable being a spark.' I knew how much it meant to Miles to be a starter. For our team to be the best version, I would take a lesser role. But I didn’t view it as a lesser role.”

Workout wonders

This was a team of hard workers, which walk-on guard Jason Stewart saw first-hand during a Monday early in the season.

β€œI’ll never forget, one day after training table, we’d already had weight training, we’d already had practice, we went to go eat, and then Bibby is like, 'I’m gonna get some shots up,’” Stewart remembers. β€œI don’t know if it was Josh's urging, but then I remember Mike Dickerson, who was my road dog, says, 'Come on Stew, let’s go get some shots up.' That was a Monday. By the end of the week, the whole team was getting shots up and extra work, and I just saw this momentum. It was this great competitive nature. It wasn't anything spiteful.

"Mike's dad (Henry) played in the league β€” he was on a journey. Josh, wanting to be a coach, he says, 'I'll go rebound.' Dickerson had his journey, too and I was buddies with him, and I'm trying to do anything to get better. Miles says, 'I'll get shots up,' and JT and A.J. (Bramlett) were in, and (so was) Bennett. It just started to snowball. Before you know it, it was every coach's dream.”

Olson winds upΒ 

With Simon back, it took Arizona some time to get acclimated. All season, really. But there was no cause for concern until the final weekend of the regular season, when Arizona lost at Stanford and Cal by a combined three points.

β€œI remember those last two regular-season games, we lost both games, and the only time I saw Coach Olson where his emotions were not in control was after the Cal game,” Pastner said. β€œWe played on a Saturday afternoon, at the Cow Palace, and I could tell losing two got to him β€” and even though we played well, there were some struggles β€” and a fan with his child on his shoulders came down screaming at Coach. He was just so happy they beat us. Coach was ready to turn and deck him. He caught himself, obviously. But it was a pretty heated locker room.”

Miles Simon and Mike Bibby laugh during a news conference held the day before the 1997 national championship game against Kentucky.

Let the haters hate

A day before the Wildcats opened the NCAA Tournament against 13th-seeded South Alabama, the Wildcats were about to go out to practice, forward Bennett Davison recalls.

And Simon asked Olson for a minute.

β€œThat was Miles,” Davison said. β€œCan we get a minute, right before practice, and he says, β€˜Let’s go out here and be professionals. We need to absorb everything. We’ve got a chance at this. We lost to Cal and Stanford, big deal. We’re not supposed to win on the road.’

"Going in, it was like, we have nothing to lose."

Just the No. 5 team in a competitive Pac-10, the Wildcats were not looked at as title hopefuls.

"We finished off poorly against Cal and Stanford β€” my little skinny ass had to guard (Cal star and future NFL Hall of Fame tight end) Tony Gonzalez β€” and we basically had a (bleeping) attitude,” Davison said. "We really felt like we had nothing to lose. Let’s just go out and play. We’d beaten Utah and North Carolina that year. We were playing against top teams."

Piano man

It was the night of the Round of 32 in Memphis, and Arizona had just survived a 73-69 tussle against College of Charleston. The Cougars aren’t exactly a basketball name brand, but they had just beaten a Maryland team that included Laron Profit and Keith Booth. Beating them was like steam releasing from an engine, and the Wildcats were ready to unwind.

So Rosborough and his wife headed down to Beale Street to decompress.

"We played in the Pyramid in Memphis, and outside of the Pyramid were the trolley tracks," Rosborough said. "We won the second game, (wife) Kim and I hopped on the trolley and headed downtown to have a beer and celebrate, and already a lot of the players are down there. Kim and I walked into a piano bar, there are dueling piano bars on the stage, and Jason Lee is up there, singing with the piano bar guys, with eight or 10 of the players are there. He’s swinging his jacket around, and then somewhere later that evening, cheerleaders, the band and the players got around in the pool, and the next thing they find one of the palm fronds in the jacuzzi, and they even got Quynn Tebbs and made him come down!"

Said Stewart: β€œThis was the piano bar! This was a great frickin’ memory. Just guys having a great time, and coaches having a good time. Sometimes what people don’t realize β€” and I can testify to this as a (high school) head coach having a great assistant coach β€” your assistant coaches are your glue. Those are the ones who get to smooth over the head coach sometimes. You can never overestimate the value. … 'Coach Roz' was so valuable to our team, and we win in Memphis, the piano bar is going, guys on top of the piano singing, and as crazy as it may sound to people not on a team β€” that helps.”

Food fight!

Of course, the fun doesn’t end there.

β€œThe night before the (title) game, we had a food fight,” Davison said. β€œOur team wasn’t really big partiers. Road trips we never went to clubs. We were all pretty even-keeled. But we were at the hotel the night before the game, in the conference room, and all of a sudden we had a food fight. We weren’t chucking plates, but we were throwing macaroni. Coach Roz says, β€˜Coach, you want me to break it up?’ Coach O said let them have fun and leave us all the stress. That was one way Coach O was so wise. He didn’t sleep that night, but he knew we needed to be footloose and fancy free.”

And they were. The next night, they’d beat Ron Mercer, Scott Padgett, Jamaal Magloire and the Kentucky Wildcats to win the national championship.

Miles Simon, right, holds up the NCAA men's basketball trophy as he and teammate Mike Bibby arrive at Arizona stadium for a rally on April 1, 1997. More than 45,000 people came out to greet the new national champions.

Winning it all

Don’t forget: These are regular college students, too.

Yet when they returned to Tucson, they were feted like kings.

β€œWhen we won and there were 50,000 in the football stadium, I won’t forget that,” Davison said. β€œYou walked into class and there was a standing ovation. Miles walked in, the whole place went berserk.”

The sounds that linger

It wasn’t just the roars of McKale Center or Arizona Stadium that the Wildcats remember.

The spring of 1997 was a pivotal year in music, with the rap scene reeling from the September 1996 death of Tupac Shakur and the March 9, 1997, shooting of Notorious B.I.G. Those two were on heavy rotation among the Wildcats for the entire season.

At least in the locker room.

β€œI like quiet,” Arizona forward Eugene Edgerson said. β€œWhen it’s time to go to bed, I want it quiet. Mike Bibby and I were roommates in Navajo-Pinal dorm, and every night, Mike puts on music to go to sleep. I didn’t want that confrontation. It was like a little jail cell, so small, we have to be able to get along. To this day, I never told him (that) I didn’t like him playing damn music at night. He was playing good music, though. He’d at least play Keith Sweat. It was β€˜Twisted,’ it was β€˜Nobody.’”

Music was behind one of Bramlett's favorite memories of the tournament.

"One I'll always remember: the night before the championship game, it's 2 in the morning, and it's impossible to sleep. We were all up, and back then we didn't have iPads or iPods, we were listening to the radio, local hip-hop in Indy," he said. "'Hypnotize' comes on, and I look in the hallway, and Mike is out there dancing. Listening to 'Hypnotize' as loud as he can. It broke the tension and ice for everybody. I got a couple hours of sleep and I was ready to go the next day."

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