THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Up to Tommy to deliver the title

It’s been a wacky week.

Oh, there was a moment of heroics, when Braydon Mullins tossed in a 30-foot jumper with less than a second to play — sending UConn to the Final Four at the expense of Duke.

We’ll wait a minute here for all the shouting and hooting from all those Duke haters from Newfoundland to the tip of Argentina.

Predictably, a lot of Dukies couldn’t let this defeat go without serious whining; specifically, screams for a technical foul.

The Duke radio crew immediately began shouting that UConn had too many men on the floor, singling out Malachi Smith.

They wound up looking foolish when it turned out Smith was legally in the game at the moment of magic.

Sorry, Duke.

No rescue.

You lost this one fair and square.

The closest thing to a technical was Huskies' coach Dan Hurley giving a light headbutt to the hairline of referee Roger Ayers.

Hurley panicked for a second or two after he did it, but Ayers — who is known for joshing and joking with coaches — let him off the hook.

HURLEY’S wife, Andrea, remained savvy amid the bedlam, grabbing players to keep them on the bench area and off the floor, since there was four-tenths of a second remaining on the clock.

Clever recruiting and sharp strategy can be the foundation for a terrific program, but as Dan Hurley can tell you …

It also helps to marry well.

We now understand that UConn is back: third trip to the Final Four in four years.

The Huskies give you the impression that they’re a force of nature, that they’ll be around with an eye on the championship no matter how they played in the regular season.

And of course, there’s always Duke.

Meantime, UConn’s opponent for the title on Monday night, assuming a win over Illinois, will be decided by two heavyweights, Michigan (which beat Gonzaga 101-61) and Tommy Lloyd’s Arizona.

Most folks in our part of the world will be rooting for Lloyd, who had a huge part in building the Zags’ nationally admired program.

Tommy was in line to coach Gonzaga whenever Few stepped down, but after 22 years, that one amazing job turned up.

“Mark told me I had to go,” Lloyd said. “It was tough because we were all family — our wives, our kids. “But the opportunity at Arizona was amazing. It’s a place where you can win everything.”

Few echoes that sentiment.

“It was the job that (Tommy) couldn’t turn down,” Few said.

So far, things have played out better in the desert than back in Spokane.

There has even been some grumbling about Few, who is about to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

THERE’S some obvious irony in the way Lloyd wound up in Tucson.

A lot of people with clout in the desert were against the hiring.

They wanted a coach with “Arizona blood,” and Lloyd not only failed on that count, but he’d also never been a head coach.

Former Wildcat star Gilbert Arenas campaigned almost non-stop to halt the school’s interest in Lloyd.

To no avail, however.

One major source of chatter at the Final Four will be Lloyd’s future.

People who spend their lives learning these things insist that North Carolina wants Lloyd, and is willing to put plenty under the Christmas tree to pull it off.

We’ll see.

For now, Tommy is busy taking the Arizona program from strength to strength.

Now his Cats have arrived at the Final Four, with a mega-talented Michigan team first on the menu.

If Arizona survives that opener (between the teams Vegas oddsmakers consider the top two), it’s the title game against surprising Illinois or resilient UConn.

Arizona has as much talent as anyone in town.

This is a bit of an exaggeration, but …

It’s up to Tommy now.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week, normally Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On."