Lute Olson Out At Arizona?

It's with a great deal of shock that Arizona Wildcat fans all across the country are visiting their favorite message boards, turning up the sound on ESPN, and reading the online version of the two Tucson daily newspapers. 

Someone told Dick Vitale that 74-year-old Lute Olson was retiring as head coach of the Arizona Wildcats basketball team after 24 years at the helm. 

Vitale immediately made the announcement, stating that it was due to health issues.  Olson is some 20 games short of 800 career wins, and stated just Tuesday that he was feeling the energy it takes to coach a team to the high standards he's maintained.

  There has been no official announcement out of the University of Arizona athletic department, and in fact, everyone contacted at the U of A has denied that Olson has tendered his resignation.

Coach Olson took last season off due to personal reasons. The 2007-08 team failed to win 20 games for the first time in some 20 years, and while they did make the NCAA tournament, they lost in the first round. 

Under Olson, Arizona has been to the Final Four in 1988, 1994, 1997 and 2001.  The 1997 trip ended in winning the NCAA championship and the 2001 trip ended with Arizona losing to the Duke Blue Devils in the championship game.  While at the University of Iowa, where he coached prior to the Arizona hire, Olson took the Hawkeyes to a Final Four as well.

While fans are shocked at today's news, it can't possibly compare to what the players are feeling or what the new recruits may be feeling. 

Abdul Gaddy, who just recently recommitted to Arizona, is critical to the program's success as he is one of the top three point guards in the class of 2009.  Solomon Hill and Mike Moser also gave Arizona verbal commitments, and are just as important as Gaddy to the program. 

Mike Dunlap is rumored to be taking over the head coaching responsibilities and should do very well.  He has done very well in his past coaching positions, and while I'm not completely familiar with him, I like everything I hear about him.  He is supposed to be a very good X's and O's man.  I also heard that he does quite well with in-game coaching, something that some fans criticized Olson for not doing well.

I've followed the Arizona program since 1988.  My thoughts and concerns are first with Coach Olson's health.  He is a legend, and he has given the sport of college basketball so much of his life. 

He has been so important at Arizona that the floor in McKale Center has been named Lute and Bobbi Olson Court.  Bobbi Olson died on 1/1/01 of ovarian cancer.  She and Lute were married 47 years, and the Wildcat players thought of her as their mom away from home.