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Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. Twenty-five years later, I am still mad about this game, especially a missed third foul call against Duke's Jay Williams during the first half. Arizona and Duke was a battle of two heavyweights, with both teams going back and forth during the first half. Ultimately, Mike Dunleavy got hot from three during the second half to prove the difference. I remember Arizona making a run during the second half but Richard Jefferson missed a wide-open layup at the rim off a beautiful inbouds play. Unfortunately, that miss seemed to swing the game in favor of Duke, which would overcome a relatively quiet game from Williams to give Coach K his third of fifth titles. Damn! I loved this Arizona team with Jason Gardner, Gilbert Arenas, Jefferson, the late Michael Wright, Loren Woods and Luke Walton. It would have been great to see this team join the 1996-97 squad as national champions, and for Lute Olsen to get one more title. Just like it wasn't meant to be for the 2000-01 Illini to reach the Final Four, it wasn't meant to be for the 00-01 Wildcats to be national champs. In fairness, this Duke team was stacked with Williams, Dunleavy, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer and Nate James. Still, I think Arizona was better and should have won this game.
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