A look back at Arizona’s 1997 NCAA men’s basketball title

PHOENIX – They were affectionately called the Cardiac Cats for a reason.

The 1997 Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball team was not considered a major threat to win the NCAA title. Most analysts considered the team too young to reach such a peak.

Over the course of a season, point guard Mike Bibby and his teammates hatched other thoughts.

“Once in a lifetime chance,” Bibby said. “We weren’t supposed to go that far that early. I think it was our sophomore year that we were supposed to win it. I remember us hoping we would make the tournament. We ended up getting a good seed.”

Arizona made the most of it, winning the first basketball national championship in program history by beating three No. 1 seeds in Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky, and winning two overtime games.

Despite a litany of successful teams over the past 29 years, that 1997 squad still stands as the lone title team in the Wildcats’ storied but largely unfulfilled history. 

The 2026 Arizona Wildcats hope to change that. Arizona enters the Final Four in Indianapolis and Saturday’s matchup against Michigan as the top remaining seed in the tournament. It’s the first Men’s Final Four for Arizona in a quarter century, while Michigan won the Big Ten regular season title to earn the No. 3 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament. No. 2 UConn takes on third-seeded Illinois in the other Final Four game, with the championship Monday night.

If the Wildcats need a source of inspiration, Bibby, a product of Shadow Mountain High School and a Valley native, has it for them.

“The path to the championship wasn’t easy,” said Bibby, who now coaches the men’s team at Sacramento State after a 14-year NBA career. “We ended up beating three number ones that year, I don’t think that’s talked about enough. I don’t know if anybody has done it since or has done it before us. It was a good run we had, we got hot at the right time and that’s all you could ask for, is to get hot.”

Bibby is correct. No other team has beaten three No. 1 seeds in one tournament. This year’s team won’t have to accomplish such a feat, but they will have the support of the 1997 club.

“I’m excited,” said A.J. Bramlett, who was the center on the 1997 team. “This is the best time to be an Arizona basketball alumni right now. These guys are incredible. My son and I came out for the red-blue game earlier in the year and saw early practices. All these guys have gotten so much better over this year, obviously their record shows that. They’ve been able to rise to every occasion throughout the year.”

Bramlett remembers all the adversity his team faced but the Wildcats always found a way to come out on top.

“The brotherhood that we had, that still lasts to this day,” he said. “Those guys are still some of my best friends in the world. The way we were able to do it was something extremely special. It was amazing.”

The title game against Kentucky was anyone’s for the taking, and went into overtime before Arizona prevailed as national champions for the first time in program history. It came against the team that won the previous national championship, and it featured 18 lead changes and 20 ties.

“Every one of our games were so close,” said UNLV coach Josh Pastner, a walk-on guard for Arizona during that thrilling ‘97 season. “There was no margin of error, whether it was the first game that we played against South Alabama. We were down 10 with five minutes to go.”

That 1997 side was dubbed the Cardiac Cats because every game was a nail-biter, coming down to the wire or going to overtime.

“We’re fortunate that Kansas missed three wide open 3-point attempts in the end of regulation,” Pastner said. “We had to go to overtime against Providence in the Elite Eight and then North Carolina. We were down (11) to start the game and then worked our way back. And then Kentucky, our unsung hero, Donnell Harris. Didn’t play a lot, made huge free throws in overtime.”

Arizona’s biggest margin of victory in the entire tournament was eight points, but the Wildcats never felt out of their league.

“We definitely felt that we could play with those teams,” Bibby said. “The thing with us is that no one really expected us to win after the first two rounds, I think people had us getting upset in the first round as well, but we were really playing with nothing to lose.

“We went out there, there was no pressure on our shoulders and no one expected us to win those games. We went out there, we went out relaxed and just played basketball.”

After the championship, the core stayed together for the 1998 season, and went from 19-9 to 27-4 in the regular season, becoming Pac-10 champions, and grabbing a No. 1 seed for the tournament.

“(In) 1998, (it) was a little different,” Bramlett said. “Guys were worried about their futures and there was no NIL so the money, you had to get it by going to the NBA so it was a little bit different … but we were a much better team that year. We were a machine.”

Arizona still went deep into the tournament field before falling to Utah in the Elite Eight, marking the end of that core of players.

In the 1998 NBA Draft, the Vancouver Grizzlies selected Bibby second overall.

Bramlett, who was drafted in the second round in 1999 by the Cleveland Cavaliers, said the college environment in which he played helped hone his skills for the next level.

“It prepared you for professional basketball,” he said. “I think all of our top eight guys played professional basketball, whether that was in Europe or the NBA. That’s why you went to Arizona, to have the experiences you have, playing in big games, compete for national championships, but also to be developed into a professional basketball player. That’s what Arizona basketball is about.”

Many of the 1997 players will be watching this year’s Final Four, and Bibby has thoughts on who will win and play in Monday’s championship game. 

“I think it’s going to be between Arizona and Michigan,” Bibby said. “I’m not taking nothing away from Illinois or Connecticut, but Michigan and Arizona have been the two best teams throughout the whole season.

“It’s kind of rough because I think whoever wins this one is going to go on to win the final but I’m hoping it’s Arizona.”

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