INDIANAPOLIS - Miles Simon has a letter from North Carolina coach Dean Smith hanging on his wall. The Great Man wrote Simon personally when Simon was a high school player in Fullerton, Calif., dreaming of wearing Carolina Blue.
Smith said thanks for your interest, but no thanks. Carolina had enough shooting guards, and would not be requiring Simon's services.
Boy, could they have used him Saturday.
Simon wound up at Arizona. The Wildcats beat North Carolina, 66-58, in the first national semifinal last night. Simon led all scorers with 24 points.
Simon was the star mainly for lack of other candidates. Unless you count his backcourt partner, Michael Bibby, who was awful for 32 minutes and just fine for the other eight. It was Bibby's good fortune - and Arizona's - that Bibby's eight minutes of fame were the last eight of the game.
Ugly? Let's just say as national semifinals go, this one will not win for artistic impression. With 9:33 left, Arizona was shooting 29 percent (16 of 54) and leading by five.
That's because North Carolina, which shot 34 percent in the first half, really lit it up after intermission, at 28 percent. Carolina shot 31 percent for the game, including four alley-oop dunks, which generally are hard to miss.
Into that mess stepped Simon, who had 15 first-half points when no other Wildcat could hit the ocean from the boat. As coach Lute Olson put it, ''He really did a good job of holding us in there until some of the other guys started making shots.''
Someone wondered if the game were sweet vindication for Simon.
''The only satisfaction came from helping my teammates make the championship,'' Simon said.
The game turned in the last eight minutes, when Simon and Bibby managed to locate the basket with some frequency. Arizona led 47-42 when Simon popped a three from the left wing. Bibby followed that with his third three of the game, from the other side.
Ninety seconds later, Bibby happened again, this time with a trey from the key, making it 58-46 and forcing a North Carolina timeout.
Said Bibby, ''My mentality is to shoot the rock. If we have an open shot, we're not going to pass it up. I'm certainly not going to pass up any open shots I finally started hitting some.''
Whatever Dean Smith said didn't work. Bibby nailed another three, this one while falling backward, nearly into the Arizona bench. That made it 61-48, with 4:39 left. North Carolina couldn't get past that deficit. Not the way the Tar Heels were shooting. ''There was some serious defense going on at both ends of the court,'' Olson decided.
That's a nice way of putting it.
Simon spoke briefly with Smith as the two walked off the court. ''It was a pleasure playing against'' North Carolina, Simon told Smith. ''Best of luck.''
Carolina's luck might have been better Saturday if Simon had been wearing blue.
ARIZONA BOX SCORE
ARIZONA GAME STORY
KENTUCKY GAME STORY
Previous Final Four stories
GUARDS PROVIDE GUIDANCE FOR TAR HEELS March 29, 1997
ARIZONA WALKS TIGHTROPE TO INDY March 28, 1997
PREJUDICE BLOCKED HASKINS FROM PLAYING AT UK March 27, 1997
TAR HEELS NO LONGER WISHING 'THEY' WERE HERE March 26, 1997
JACKSON EXCEPTION TO HASKINS' RULE March 25, 1997
ARIZONA JOINS NO.1 PARTY March 24, 1997
