Paying The Last Respects To A Legend

Sunday afternoon the UA basketball world paid its final respects to the great, Lute Olson.

And it was a star studded affair with names like Steve Kerr, Richard Jefferson and Andre Iguodala in attendance. 

It’s no secret that Arizona Basketball has the best fan base in the entire Pac-12 conference and certainly the most intimidating home court advantage. 

And there is one reason why: Robert Luther (Lute) Olson.

His accomplishments are dizzying (the 1997 National Championship, Five Final 4’s, including one as the head coach at the University of Iowa, 11 Pac-10 Championships and an assembly line of NBA millionaires including 6 who accumulated more than 100 million dollars.

And he did it at a school without much history. Yes, Fred Snowden had a few nice seasons.

But this wasn’t Roy Williams hopscotching from Kansas to North Carolina; this was a man who took over a program with limited past success that was coming off a four win season. 

And sure, there was some luck involved. What are the chances that the city of Tucson, which has produced four NBA players in its history, would produce one of the best players in conference history right around the time Olson took over as the head coach of the Wildcats.

But Lute Olson’s success was going to happen with or without Sean Elliott. Elliott just rapidly accelerated the process.

And from 1988-2003, Arizona was one of the five best basketball programs in the country.

Yes, from time to time Olson brought in some blue chip recruits, Mike Bibby being the most prominent, but his empire was built on the backs of players like Steve Kerr,  Damon Stoudamire, Miles Simon and Jason Terry. Solid division one players who were, nonetheless, regional high school recruits.

And once Olson got it rolling he never let up. While Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky  had dip years, that didn’t occur under Olson as a number 5 seed was the lowest seed he produced in that 15 year window.

And he did it with class and loyalty. Olson had multiple opportunities to leave for much bigger jobs. But the family environment empire that Lute and Bobbi Olson built proved far too much to move away from. And staying in Tucson only enhanced his legacy.

In the years since Lute retired Arizona had some high peaks, not like what Olson accomplished, but still enviable for most programs.

And to this day, when you ask someone about Arizona Athletics the first thought will generally be about the basketball program.

 And that is because of Lute.