Editor’s note: The following story first appeared in the April 1, 1997 edition of the Arizona Daily Star.
INDIANAPOLIS — Miles Simon was riding the back of a golf cart when he put the UA’s defensive effort in exact perspective.
“Mercer got only nine shots,” Simon said.
Kentucky forward Ron Mercer may torment the NBA after being one of the top three picks in the 1997 June draft, but he had very little effect on the UA in its 84-79 national championship victory to deny Kentucky a repeat title.
Mercer, a 6-foot-7-inch sophomore power forward playing his final college game, made five field goals in those nine shots while being covered man-to-man by Michael Dickerson, Miles Simon and Jason Terry.
In addition, UA forward Bennett Davison jumped out around screens to double-team Mercer in the first half, although the UA got away from that later when Kentucky began working the inside.
“I wasn’t making anything. I figured if I wasn’t making anything, he wasn’t going to get anything, either,” said Dickerson, who had one field goal and two free throws. “I figured, forget it. I’ll play defense. My main thing was to stay in front of him when he made a curl,” a move around a screen that is supposed to pick off the defensive player.
By the second half, Kentucky had abandoned most of its curl plays in favor of trying to get Mercer the ball in the low post. But the UA prevented catches there, too.
“We have played Isaac Fontaine, Ed Gray, similar players in our league that don’t get a lot of points on us,” Dickerson said. “We knew if we could shut those types of players down, we could shut Ron Mercer down.”
Terry, 6-1, used his quickness to overcome a size disadvantage while on Mercer.
“I was just trying to beat him to the ball and not let him get to his comfort zone,” Terry said. “We knew if he and (guard Cameron) Mills got hot, it would be a long night.”
The UA players said they noticed Mercer seemed to be frustrated as the game wore on. Several times in the second half, Mercer seemed to be yelling at his teammates to run plays to get him the ball.
Mercer was 1 for 4 in the first half, scoring on a three-pointer with 14:37 remaining. The last of his four baskets in the second half was a desperation three that brought Kentucky within striking distance, 72-71, with 51.1 seconds remaining.
Mercer did not get off a shot in overtime before fouling out with 41.7 remaining and the UA leading, 80-76.
“You can’t take any credit away from them,” Mercer said. “They went out and played outstanding defense. Every time I circled around, they had somebody waiting for me. They made it tough for me to score.”
Mercer had nine rebounds and six assists, but also had five turnovers.
“Well, I thought they did a wonderful job on him. They were very physical coming off screens,” Kentucky coach Rick Pitino said.
“Miles Simon’s toughness was unbelievable,” UA coach Lute Olson said.
The UA coaches made Mercer priority No. 1.
“We challenged our guys with Mercer just like we did with Fontaine and Brevin Knight,” assistant coach Jim Rosborough said.
“Mike D. took him out of the game early. He got through screens.”
Terry took Mercer later, before Simon did most of the crunch-time work.
