Other articles by Greg Hansen:

Opinion by Greg Hansen : Cats testing fans' faith, loyalty early in season Opinion by Greg Hansen : 'Underdog' will often describe UA Opinion by Greg Hansen : Cats, Hoosiers on same path Opinion by Greg Hansen : Second half encouraging, but UA is long past moral-victory stage Opinion by Greg Hansen : Interim coach: a curse or a chance? Opinion by Greg Hansen : Ultracool atmosphere at UO fouled by some uncool fans Opinion by Greg Hansen : Film is Busch League work, and great Opinion by Greg Hansen : Dec. 30, 1998, is no longer 'last time' Hansen's Sunday notebook Opinion by Greg Hansen : Victory just shows Arizona has 'a lot more to play for'

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TEMPE

In a college sense, this is like it must've been for the Yankees of the late '60s — no Mantle, no Berra, no Ford, no Maris — and yet it didn't matter to the Twins and the Angels and their long-suffering baseball fans.

The bill had come due. There was no mercy.

It said "Yankees'' on the jersey, and even though it was Horace Clarke at second base and Bill Monbouquette on the mound, the fans delighted in dancing on the ghosts of the once-proud team from New York.

On Wednesday night, the long-proud UA basketball team was at times forced to play 6-foot-6-inch Fendi Onobun at center, anybody with a pulse and a uniform at point guard and Zane Johnson, making his college debut as a zone-busting shooting guard.

When the Sun Devils won 64-59 in overtime, you would have thought it was for a berth in the Final Four. Fans rushed the court. Sun Devil football coach Dennis Erickson raised his arms skyward and hugged celebrating fans. ASU athletic director Lisa Love walked down a corridor past the UA dressing room and gave an associate a high-five.

"Finally,'' said ASU junior center Jeff Pendergraph, "when I leave here, I can at least say I got them once. They didn't get me. They didn't get JP while he was here. ''

ASU coach Herb Sendek, a very smart man, reminded the quickly multiplying Sun Devil fan base that "15 games remain and only six are at home,'' but if anyone every deserved to celebrate, it is those who have invested in Sun Devil basketball.

"We happened to win tonight's game, no more, no less,'' Sendek said. Not a soul in Maricopa County heard him.

The Sun Devils are better than they've been for the last decade, and freshman guard James Harden is probably as good as anyone to put on an ASU uniform since Fat Lever a generation earlier, and let no one suggest that Sendek is bland or suffering from a charisma bypass.

When you win 13 of 15 games, including one against Arizona, personality flows.

The Wildcats aren't going to have ASU to kick around any longer.

"When it rains, it pours a little bit,'' said UA interim head coach Kevin O'Neill. By the end of the next four games — at Houston, at Stanford, at Cal and home against Washington State — O'Neill might show up to coach in a slicker.

What happened? Here's the first clue: UA senior guard Daniel Dillon, who averages 22 minutes a game, played 44 minutes Wednesday. In the first half, he was all over Harden, pushing, shoving and denying him the ball. In the course of the 19 minutes Dillon guarded Harden, the Sun Devil hot-shot was 1 for 6 afield and scored two points.

"How many minutes did Daniel play?'' O'Neill asked, rhetorically. "We're asking guys to do things they haven't done before.''

Dillon's legs were gone long before overtime, forcing the Wildcats to abandon their defensive plan on Harden, who scored 11 points in the final 11 minutes and 22 in the second half.

Down the stretch, Jawann McClellan was assigned to guard Harden, and perhaps the McClellan of 2005, the pre-knee surgery McClellan, would have shut down a Sun Devil freshman. But on Jan. 9, 2008, it was unrealistic to expect as much.

"Harden will be a high draft pick this year,'' said O'Neill. "He can get to the rim or the foul line.''

ASU beat Arizona the way it used to lose. It shot and made eight more free throws than the Wildcats. In Lute Olson's 43-6 dominion of the series, the Wildcats would subtly close out the Sun Devils by parading Sean Elliott and Khalid Reeves and Jason Gardner to the foul line.

Arizona was always the aggressor in this series, home or road. But on Wednesday, Harden initiated contact, lowered his shoulder and drove to the bucket until he shot 13 free throws. By comparison, Chase Budinger played mostly on the perimeter, failing to score in the final seven minutes.

"I couldn't hit any shots in the second half,'' he said, and indeed he was 1 for 6 afield in the game's final 25 minutes. "I couldn't get anything going.''

Much of the reason Budinger couldn't get anything going was because Sendek's ever-changing zone defense rarely gave any Wildcat the space to shoot, especially Budinger. Without injured Jerryd Bayless, the Wildcats aren't exactly an offensive puzzle.

Guard Budinger with a variety of players, do what you can to keep Jordan Hill from 10 dunks, and you've got a good chance.

It doesn't mean O'Neill left the premises somewhat comforted that his talent- and depth-challenged team did the best it could, or that the Sun Devils must play in Tucson next month when Bayless should be at full speed.

The Wildcats blew a 55-50 lead in the final two minutes of regulation. It was a game they lost as much as a game ASU won.

"We didn't finish the job,'' he said. "We were a little short of bodies.''

Didn't matter. The bill came due Wednesday night and Arizona paid.