Lute Olson quitting Arizona -- for the second and final time

This guy?

 

we can only hope ...

 

It was 1993, a first-round game at Utah. Nash was a freshman. I covered both the Pac-10 and the WCC back then. Nash wasn't all that great of a player in college, especially as a freshman. Santa Clara's best player was forward Pete Eisenrich, who might have been the eighth man on Arizona's team. Santa Clara wins and Arizona gets torched.
The next year, Arizona wins the West Regional in L.A. Lute spent his entire time on the podium railing the media for the way it treated his players last season. Then he goes in the locker room and is surrounded by more writers and he kept on his fucking distribe for another 20 minutes.
Dammit Lute, what are we supposed to write? You're a 2 that loses to a 15. They have one player who might be your eighth man. What are we supposed to say, "Oh, you've got a great bunch of guys, too bad they lost to a team they should have beaten by 25 points."

 

This just showed up on my Yahoo home page.

Olson's doctor (!) and daughter have called a press conference. I have a bad feeling.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081028/ap_on_sp_co_ne/bkc_arizona_olson_1

 

OK, it wasn't as bad as I thought, fortunately. My first inclination was that we were going to find out he was terminally ill or on his deathbed.

 

Depression was involved...I guess that explains the sudden divorce that even his wife had no idea why.

 

That explains plenty.

It's amazing the things that can bend thoughts in a brain. I went through this with family last year. Ours could probably be linked to disease and possibly medication.

Hope Lute gets better and enjoys his retirement. Regardless of what some of you may think of him, he's certainly earned it.

 

It is clear now ...
The post that started this thread, and about half of the others here, are good reasons why coaches routinely despise or at the very least are leery of the media.

 

I still think he never really got over Bobbi's death.

 

Because they're dismissive of reality?

 

Yup. Usually, people of Lute's type tend to deserve benefit of the doubt. Exercising it here would have been very wise.

I know what some have said about dealing with Lute personally - there's no way I can dispute any of those anecdotes - but I have to believe there are much, much worse than Olson.

We don't have to be Lute's friend - that would be another red flag - but it's amazing what a little benefit of the doubt would usually get a writer or editor in a sticky situation such as this one.