BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A year ago, they didn't even watch the NCAA Tournament's Final Four on television. It wasn't that Bennett Davison and Mike Bibby couldn't bear it; they simply didn't care. Now, it is their show.
It belongs to the Arizona Wildcats, who became the last team in Sunday with a 96-92 overtime victory over Providence. It belongs to the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Kentucky Wildcats and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. They will gather this weekend at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis for three days of basketball that will command the attention of the nation's sports fans.
''The last time I watched was when Arizona was in it. When was that?'' said Bibby, a freshman guard. ''Yeah, 1994.''
''I'm just not much of a basketball watcher,'' said Davison, a junior college transfer who plays power forward for the Wildcats. ''To me, it was not a big deal.''
He will soon learn it is. There will be a crowd of better than 40,000 in the stands and a television audience rivaling the year's most significant sporting events.
If college basketball is believed to be generally lacking in glamour because of the premature departure of players such as Allen Iverson, Ray Allen and Marcus Camby to the NBA, this Final Four could be the antidote. The remaining programs are among the most tradition-rich, even with Kansas absent following its upset Friday.
The nation's three most accomplished players will not be there - Wake Forest center Tim Duncan, Utah forward Keith Van Horn and Cincinnati forward Danny Fortson - but the greatest talent, UK sophomore Ron Mercer, will be.
As will the winningest coach in college basketball, UNC's Dean Smith, who is at 879 victories and counting, and the NCAA's reigning champion, Kentucky.
However you look at this group, there is someone who does not quite belong.
There are three teams that have made a combined 27 trips to the Final Four and one going for the first time (Minnesota).
There are three No. 1 seeds and one team that began the tournament seeded fourth (Arizona).
There are three teams that have been healthy through most of the year and that has been riddled with injuries (Kentucky).
There are three teams that lost their final game of the regular season and one (North Carolina) that hasn't felt the sting of defeat since Jan. 29. The Tar Heels' winning streak is at 16 games.
