Arizona’s seniors miss Final Four
Salim Stoudamire stood at the edge of the court, his hands on his hips, a look of disbelief on his face.
He and Arizona had come so far, come so close, only to watch an opportunity slip away again. On the verge of making its fourth Final Four since 1994, Arizona fell apart. So sure-handed all game, the Wildcats never quite got the shot they wanted in the closing minutes, falling to top-seeded Illinois 90-89 in the Chicago Regional final in Rosemont, Ill.
Stoudamire, the hero in Arizona’s regional semifinal victory over Oklahoma State, had his chances. He had the ball in his hands at the end of regulation, but Luther Head leaped despite a balky hamstring and got a hand on the shot, swatting it away to send the game in overtime.
Trailing 90-87, Stoudamire missed an off-kilter 3-pointer with 51 seconds left. Hassan Adams grabbed the rebound and made a layup, but Arizona (30-7) was still short.
That’s the way it would end. Adams took one last desperation shot in the final second, but it wasn’t even close.
When the buzzer sounded, freshman Jawann McClellan pulled his jersey over his head and collapsed on the floor. Stoudamire stood in shocked silence, still looking dazed several minutes later when Illinois guard Luther Head went to hug him.
Stoudamire and Channing Frye leave with a 102-31 record and as this year’s Pacific-10 Conference regular-season champions, but that pales in comparison to the mark that really matters. Stoudamire and Frye will leave as the first Arizona seniors to not make at least one Final Four since 1993.
Sutton coming back
Six seniors who helped produce 57 victories the past two years, a Big 12 Conference championship and a Final Four trip won’t be back at Oklahoma State next season.
Eddie Sutton, though, will return.
During the telecast of third-seeded Arizona’s 79-78 victory over the second-seeded Cowboys on Thursday night in a Chicago Region semifinal, CBS Sports announcer Dick Enberg kept saying that the game would be Sutton’s farewell. The 69-year-old coach refuted that three times during postgame interviews.
“That is not true,” Sutton said of the retirement report.
Sutton’s son, Sean, is the head coach-designate and will take over for his father when dad decides to step down. With six of the top seven from this season’s 26-7 team being seniors, next season the Cowboys will rely on sophomore-to-be JamesOn Curry and a stellar recruiting class.
“I’m not gonna leave Sean with a bunch of rookies next year,” Sutton said. “If somebody’s going to take some hits, I’m gonna take ‘em.
UNC’s Williams still ailing
North Carolina forward Jawad Williams doesn’t expect his hip injury to hinder him in today’s Syracuse Regional final against Wisconsin.
“I’m never going to use an injury as an excuse,” he said. “I haven’t been playing as well as I’d like. My shots aren’t falling, but I can still do other things like rebound and play defense.”
Williams had been one of the Tar Heels’ most reliable scorers before straining his hip flexor in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament against Clemson.
Since then, he has scored in single digits in three consecutive games, totaling 12 points in the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
New Mexico State hires Theus
New Mexico State has hired Louisville assistant and former NBA All-Star Reggie Theus as its new men’s basketball coach, a member of the search committee told the Associated Press.
“It’s a done deal,” said the search committee member, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
NMSU has scheduled a news conference Monday to announce the hiring of a coach.
Theus, 47, has been on Rick Pitino’s staff at Louisville the past two seasons. Prior to that, he was a volunteer assistant for a year at Cal State Los Angeles. He also was head coach of the Las Vegas Slam of the ABA during the 2002 season.
Theus, who played for Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV from 1976-78, spent 13 years in the NBA with Chicago, Kansas City, Atlanta, Sacramento, Orlando and New Jersey.