Finalists Make Believers Unexpected Success Brings Them Together

The scowl has been replaced by grins.

Arizona coach Lute Olson smiles so much these days, some wonder whether he found time in the past week to go to charm school.

He even has cut down the number of times he lectures reporters for bringing up UA’s past first-round knockouts.

The Wildcats enter the Final Four as Team Pepsodent.

“We’re not happy yet, but the atmosphere is nowhere near as uptight as it has been in the past,” Arizona center A.J. Bramlett said.

In an improbable national semifinal matchup Saturday in Indianapolis, Arizona, the fifth-place team in the Pac-10, will play a North Carolina squad that started 0-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

If Arizona is Team Pepsodent, the Tar Heels are Team Left for Dead.

“We were 0-3,” guard Shammond Williams said. “Now everybody believes in us.”

In the other semifinal, it’s Team Anonymous (the Minnesota Golden Gophers) against a Kentucky team that has become known as “the Unbelievables.”

A year ago, Kentucky coach Rick Pitino referred to his national championship team as “the Untouchables.” But the Wildcats lost three players to the NBA, and then potential NBA first-round pick Derek Anderson suffered a season-ending knee injury in January.

A week ago, Allen Edwards was ruled out for the year because of a stress fracture in his right foot.

It didn’t stop the Wildcats from making their third trip to the Final Four in five years.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had as much pride in a basketball team as I have in this one right now,” Pitino said.

Kentucky will be playing in its 11th Final Four, the same number of times coach Dean Smith has taken the Tar Heels.

Minnesota will be playing in its first Final Four, a year after it became the first Big Ten school to win 10 conference games and not receive an NCAA Tournament bid since the field was expanded to 64 in 1985.

“Last year was a tough thing to accept,” senior forward Sam Jacobson said. “We wanted to make sure there was no way for them to leave us out again.”

The Golden Gophers did that by winning 27 games and the Big Ten title. They will try to become the first Big Ten team to win the national crown since 1989.

The past two years, no Big Ten team has made it past the second round.

“It’s not fair,” Minnesota coach Clem Haskins said of the criticism of the Big Ten. “I hope people realize that if you try to make a living in the Big Ten, you can go hungry. We’re here because we’ve been tested 18 times in our league. It’s no fluke.”

Kentucky is led by one of the nation’s top players, forward Ron Mercer. Arizona has a great scorer in Michael Dickerson and a terrific backcourt in Mike Bibby, Miles Simon and Jason Terry. North Carolina’s sophomore duo of Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter are future stars.

But few know any Golden Gophers except Bobby Jackson, the Big Ten’s Player of the Year.

“You can have the best five players in the world, but if you don’t play as a team, you’re not going to win,” Jacobson said. “We’re not worried about the spotlight. We just play to win.”

Arizona will be playing in its third Final Four. Olson also took Iowa to the national semifinals in 1980.