Bill Frieder

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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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The Sun Devil Sweep is at once the most rare and feared of all things in the modern age of Arizona basketball. OK, except for maybe that Santa Clara thing, 1993, NCAA tournament.

The only Sun Devil Sweep in the Lute Olson era occurred on Saturday, March, 11, 1995, at McKale Center. It was Senior Day. It was a perfect storm of basketball calamities.

Arizona consensus All-America point guard, senior Damon Stoudamire, sat, chin in hand, in civilian clothes. He would not play because his father, Willie, had allegedly accepted plane fare from a booster or an agent, or someone who knew better.

UA athletic director Jim Livengood appealed to the NCAA to clear Stoudamire in time for his final home game. Alas, those at the NCAA rules and regulations office had clocked out at 5 p.m. Friday and said they would address the issue Monday morning.

Senior Day. Mighty Mouse didn't even work up a sweat.

Next to Stoudamire on the bench, also in civvies, was Ben Davis, a 6-foot-8-inch, 255-pound keg of rebounding power. He was withheld pending another NCAA investigation, this one to determine whether he had taken extra benefits in a summer- league camp. (He did.) Davis' next game in an Arizona uniform was thus postponed until his All-Pac-10 senior season.

This was the best Sun Devil team of the Bill Frieder years wearing maroon and gold uniforms. ASU came to Tucson with a 21-8 record, alone in third place in the Pac-10 at 11-6. The Sun Devils had defeated Arizona 53-52 in Tempe two months earlier, although "defeated" had some strings.

Stoudamire launched what he assumed was the game's winning basket, a three-pointer, with five seconds remaining. Swish. Arizona won 55-53, right?

But just as Stoudamire released the ball, UA guard Reggie Geary turned to referee Bob Garibaldi and requested a timeout.

ASU won 53-52, and it came to Tucson attempting to complete the season sweep. It had last done so in 1982-83. Ben Lindsey was Arizona's basketball coach.

"There was a lot of smack in the hallway after that game," Geary said. "They were all screaming about how they were the new boys in town and we weren't that good."

Sound familiar?

A few minutes before tip-off in the McKale rematch, Olson and team medical personnel declared that UA starting center Joseph Blair — a 6-foot-10-inch, 265-pound beast averaging 12.8 points and 7.1 rebounds — would join Stoudamire and Davis in street clothes.

Blair had sprained an ankle in a midweek practice; he could not walk without pain.

No Stoudamire. No Blair. No Davis. That was 45.3 points per game, idle spectators.

Forced to start four guards and a small forward — the only available "big" man was seldom-used sophomore power forward Jarvis Kelley, who would soon transfer to Rice — Arizona didn't have enough firepower. The Sun Devils won 103-98 in two overtimes.

The Sun Devil Sweep was complete.

"No one is immune to the problems that surround college basketball these days," said Frieder. "There isn't a coach in the country who has lost more players than I have."

Junior center Mario Bennett, who scored 34 points and collared 10 rebounds, was less sensitive.

"I wanted to beat them with everybody on the floor, but then I got to thinking that they didn't care much about us when I was hurt and when Quincy (Brewer) was hurt," he said. "They were beating us by 40 and 30, and the next day in the paper it didn't say nothing about Bennett was out. Quincy was out."

Olson complimented the Sun Devils but condemned the NCAA.

"I understand the rules. I also understand common sense," he said, a reference to Stoudamire being withheld from Senior Day, even though he had not violated a rule. "Until they throw dirt on me, I will never understand how someone could do this."

What we learned from the entire experience of March 11, 1995, the Sun Devil Sweep, is that no team gets bonus points for adversity.

You play with what brung ya, ASU vs. UA, sweep on the line.

The Wildcats won't play with point guard Nic Wise today, the same way they played without guard Jerryd Bayless in an overtime loss in Tempe last month. Further, the UA's inside depth has been compromised by the loss of injured forward Bret Brielmaier.

"You can't have pity on no one," Bennett said in the Sun Devils' McKale Center locker room 13 years ago.

On page 166 of Arizona's 2007-08 media guide, the small print of the 1994-95 season says, simply: ASU 103, Arizona 98 (2 ot).

No asterisks. No excuses.

The better team won.