This is a bittersweet time of year for me. On one side, the Final Four is not even a week away. The NCAA Tournament already chewed up and spit out 61 teams and only four remain. This weekend I will be glued to my little television in my miniature-sized dorm room watching every second of the final three games of the college basketball season.

And then the horror begins. Months upon months of nothingness except baseball and a few weeks of XFL to fill my time between seasons. There is the occasional AAU tournament and summer basketball camp that I will probably be at, but college basketball is something else.

So in the final week of the season, I only have one wish for the gods of the Hubert H. Humphrey Dome in Minneapolis: Please let Arizona win the national championship.

I probably should be rooting for Michigan State. The Spartans are the defending champs, a Big Ten school and another Spartan championship would give Penn State some bragging rights since they beat them in the Big Ten tournament.

Or maybe I should be pulling for Maryland. Going to its first Final Four, the Terrapins might have the toughest draw, playing Duke in the opening game Saturday evening.

Maybe I'd like to see Duke win another one. Shane Battier is probably the most respected person and player in all of college basketball. After all, I was on the same team at Van Coleman's FutureStars Camp with Blue Devils point guard Jason Williams in the summer of 1998.

But forget all that. I'm rooting for Arizona. Every team has its ups-and-downs throughout the long season, but the Wildcats are an exception. Arizona started slow, losing to Purdue, Connecticut, Illinois and Mississippi State all before the New Year. The Pac-10 conference schedule was a more kind, but the 'Cats still dropped games to Stanford, UCLA and even Oregon.

With the rollercoaster ride of having Loren Woods and Richard Jefferson suspended for ridiculous ticket receiving "scandals" and the erratic non-conference win-loss record, Arizona probably deserves the crown just for that.

But the biggest story of the Wildcats season, doesn't have to do with records, scandals or usually getting knocked out in the early rounds of the Tournament.

Arizona coach Lute Olson lost his wife of 47 years, Bobbi, to ovarian cancer, devastating the coach, his team and the entire Wildcat community.

Bobbi went through more than a two-year battle with the cancer. Now, the Arizona players have dedicated their season to the memory of Mrs. Olson. Two games away from a championship, the Wildcats know they are close to not only making their families, fans and university proud, but also a woman who former Wildcat and current Portland Trailblazers guard Damon Stoudamire called a second mother.

This weekend, four teams will be in Minneapolis for one purpose: winning the national championship. Michigan State will be there. Duke will be ready. Maryland will be looking for the upset.

But Arizona will have the edge. It has Bobbi Olson on its side.