THE LATEST LINE: UK GETS EDGE IN CAT FIGHT

It's hard to say that any feat a basketball program with Kentucky's tradition accomplishes is a surprise, but the Wildcats certainly weren't a lock to reach this year's NCAA championship game.

And Arizona? Well, I don't think anybody expected the fifth-place team from the Pac-10 Conference to make it that far.

But those squads have reached Monday night's culmination of the 1996-97 college basketball season.

It will be a battle of Wildcats as tradition-rich, defending champion Kentucky takes on upstart Arizona, which has never won the national title.

After losing four players to the NBA draft and then redshirting another, Kentucky certainly wasn't supposed to be nearly the team it was last year when it virtually waltzed to the national title. And that doesn't even take into account that the Wildcats lost standout Derek Anderson to an injury during this season.

Meanwhile, Arizona -- with no senior starters -- was expected to be a year away from being a serious title contender.

All of which offers an intriguing title matchup.

If anybody can handle Kentucky's vaunted pressure, it could be guard-rich and lightning quick Arizona.

But I don't think any team is better in big games these days than Kentucky.

So I look for the Wildcats -- the Kentucky version -- to be cutting down the nets once again Monday night.

Of course, that's not exactly a bold statement, because I'm sure most people are expecting UK to prevail.

Let's make it 85-79.

* The name has changed, but there still figures to be plenty of big-time competition when the ALL SPORT Relays are held Friday and Saturday at SEMO's Abe Stuber Track & Field Complex.

The 16th annual collegiate track meet, formally known as the SEmotion Relays, will feature several athletes who have placed high in NCAA Division I national meets.

* Good luck to the SEMO gymnasts as they prepare to compete in Saturday's NCAA Central Regional in Ann Arbor, Mich.

* One more little footnote to last week's commentary about Notre Dame's girls basketball and the area rankings:

The final poll of the season offers a perfect example of what I said last week -- that a lot of people who vote really don't pay much attention.

Notre Dame wound up ranked second and Cape Central third, both ahead of fourth-place Poplar Bluff (Jackson finished first).

Now, the Lady Bulldogs had a great season, finishing second in the state in Class 2A, and the Central also did well this year.

But no way either of them should have been voted ahead of Poplar Bluff, which took Jackson to overtime in the 4A district, beat Notre Dame by 15 points during the season and also beat Central the last few times the teams played, including in the district.

It all just goes to show you that folks shouldn't put too much stock into the poll -- or any kind of rankings, for that matter.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian