Lute Olson steps down

[weezie]

Ready for some wild speculation for the next Zona coach?

How about Rick Barnes?

I'm impressed, that would be a great "get" for AZ.
And I agree with Faison1 about the players at A being royally abused by the antics of the past year. Poor Chase Budinger, what a catastrophe of a career he's had to soldier through. I hope he has a chance in the NBA.

[BD80]

Ready for some wild speculation for the next Zona coach?

How about Rick Barnes?

I doubt UA has the funds to get Barnes. Further, UA cannot compete with Texas' facilities and there is not nearly as much local talent in Az as in Tx.

Money has been short at all Arizona universities and funding is a big issue. Even if they could get a few boosters to pony up for a big-time coach, the politics could undo the deal.

Lute will have a lot to say about his successors, if only because of his connections to at least several of the most supportive ($$$$) boosters.

[Edouble]

I can't see AZ reeling in Rick Barnes. He seems super-happy at Texas. Although he has not won an NC at his school, he seems like he would be very close to the Tom Izzo/Bill Self level of coach that is going to be really tough to pull away from their team. He left Clemson b/c he couldn't compete in recruiting with Duke and UNC and he wanted to put down roots somewhere that he could build a top program. Now that he's established that, I don't know why on earth he'd want to leave. Honsetly, I don't see Arizona as having a much bigger basketball name than Texas. The Longhorns have actually been to a Final Four more recently.

Anthony Grant? Probably not. Big $$$, plus I doubt he knows the west coast.

One of our guys? Wojo, Collins, or Quin? Probably not, as Lute doesn't care much for Duke and I assume he'd have some say in his successor.

I kind of like a guy like Steve Alford or Quin, who's had some good experience but ended things in a rough patch.

Mike Jarvis seems like the wrong fit.

Mike Montgomery might not want to coach a third team in one conference.

[tbyers11]

One of our guys? Wojo, Collins, or Quin? Probably not, as Lute doesn't care much for Duke and I assume he'd have some say in his successor.

I haven't given much thought to who the next Arizona head coach might be, but after

-the Kevin O'Neill as the head coach-in-waiting fiasco
-the strangeness of this retirement "announcement"
-his overall weird behavior the last couple of years

I am not sure Lute will have much, if any, say in who the next coach is.

[arydolphin]

If Arizona really wanted to make a splash, they'd get Josh Pastner to come back there as the head coach. He was a walk-on on their 1997 championship team, then became an assistant coach in his 20s and was a star recruiter. He left last year to go to Memphis to be an assistant and the head recruiter there. He's in his early 30's right now, so it wouldn't be the most traditional hire, but he's a rising star in the profession.

[dukeballer2294]

Its ashame a legends final years were so bad like his at Arizona

[weezie]

Anthony Grant?

I kind of like a guy like Steve Alford

I like your free associations! Au contraire, I think AG would jump at the chance to take the helm and SA might like the Arizona sunshine.

Tucson is one sweet gig in December, January,February and March.

[brevity]

Tucson is one sweet gig in December, January,February and March.

Anyone remember who said this 11 years ago?

"I'd like to go to Tucson, we deserve Tucson. I deserve Tucson. They'll probably put someone down there who doesn't like Mexican food, won't go in the sun or lust after the beautiful babes. If anybody deserves Tucson it's me."

[weezie]

Tell!

[Edouble]

Anyone remember who said this 11 years ago?

"I'd like to go to Tucson, we deserve Tucson. I deserve Tucson. They'll probably put someone down there who doesn't like Mexican food, won't go in the sun or lust after the beautiful babes. If anybody deserves Tucson it's me."

11 years ago, hmm... could that have been 1998 NCAA Tournament media darling Rick Majerus?

Good quote.

[BD80]

Parrish intimates that Lute had lost it two years ago

http://www.sportsline.com/collegebas...story/11056903

[dkbaseball]

Lute was a class act, IMO, who took the role of educator seriously. From that standpoint, I wish K would adopt Lute's policy of open practices. I went around to Lute's practices quite a bit in the 88-89 season, when he kept his team in the top five all season, despite having lost Kerr, Tolbert and MacMillan from the previous season. It was a real learning experience.

One dissenting point to the DBR cover story: Tucson wasn't completely virgin territory for college hoops enthusiasm when Lute arrived. Fred "the Fox" Snowden made use of a recruiting pipeline to Detroit to keep McKale rocking during most of the '70s. Not the cleanest of programs, at least by reputation, but they won a lot, and people showed up and got excited.

[JasonEvans]

If Arizona really wanted to make a splash, they'd get Josh Pastner to come back there as the head coach. He was a walk-on on their 1997 championship team, then became an assistant coach in his 20s and was a star recruiter. He left last year to go to Memphis to be an assistant and the head recruiter there. He's in his early 30's right now, so it wouldn't be the most traditional hire, but he's a rising star in the profession.

Pastner left for Memphis because he got passed over as associate head coach for Mike Dunlap. I am somewhat skeptical that they would turn to him now after sending him away in a huff just a short time ago. Plus, even though Josh is a fabulous recruiter, he has a rep as a guy who tries to "take shortcuts" and he might be dangerous as a head coach.

There is talk that Jim Rosborough will come back from his administration job to coach on an interim basis. He was Lute's longtime assistant.

Wanna hear a funny story-- top 100 SF Mike Moser is actually visiting Arizona today on a recruiting visit. He has a non-refundable ticket so he has to come. I have no idea who will host his visit or how they can possibly talk to him about his future with the program. What a mess!!

--Jason "what really matters is what will happen to elite, top 10 PG Abdul Gaddy-- I bet he goes to UCLA" Evans

[allenmurray]

Lute was a class act, IMO, who took the role of educator seriously.

From that standpoint, I wish K would adopt Lute's policy of open practices.

Open practices would be fun for the fans. Other than that, what does your first statement have to do with your second? Would open practices do anything at all to make the players better students? Is it the job of the basketball coach to use his practice with his team to educate the fans about basketball? I really don't understand the connection between the two.

[dkbaseball]

Open practices would be fun for the fans. Other than that, what does your first statement have to do with your second? Would open practices do anything at all to make the players better students? Is it the job of the basketball coach to use his practice with his team to educate the fans about basketball? I really don't understand the connection between the two.

Yeah, that was my thought -- expand the concept of education to include the general public, in a subject area of great interest to large numbers of people. I'm not terribly impressed with the notion of education as private property that's bought and paid for, and is the exclusive possession of the purchaser (or scholarship recipient, as the case may be). If these coaches are such great teachers and leaders, why shouldn't we all get the benefit, since we're not heading down to the registrar's office and asking for credit after watching practice?

And it was a genuine learning experience watching Lute bring a team together. As it was watching Gary Williams' practices, which, among other things, will help you give new meaning to the term volatility. I can still recall watching the ball sail over my head as he kicked it into the upper reaches of the stands at Cole, and then kicked his team off the floor.

[Edouble]

Yeah, that was my thought -- expand the concept of education to include the general public, in a subject area of great interest to large numbers of people. I'm not terribly impressed with the notion of education as private property that's bought and paid for, and is the exclusive possession of the purchaser (or scholarship recipient, as the case may be). If these coaches are such great teachers and leaders, why shouldn't we all get the benefit, since we're not heading down to the registrar's office and asking for credit after watching practice?

And it was a genuine learning experience watching Lute bring a team together.

If we were to go and watch one of Lute's open practices, it would be a very poor education in defense indeed!

I think I get a pretty good basketball education from Coach K just from watching the games and seeing the different style adjustments from year to year. An open door policy on all practices is a difficult concept for me to handle. Lute was a self-proclaimed non-yeller, which, I think, may have contributed to the softeness of some of his teams. Sometimes you need to chew your team out, and Coach K, Roy, Pitino, Izzo, and all the great coaches do it. I don't think it's always appropriate to have full disclosure to the public in those situations.

[Edouble]

And it was a genuine learning experience watching Lute bring a team together. As it was watching Gary Williams' practices, which, among other things, will help you give new meaning to the term volatility. I can still recall watching the ball sail over my head as he kicked it into the upper reaches of the stands at Cole, and then kicked his team off the floor.

Oh! You added some more while I was replying.

Those poor little Twerps! Seriously, if you have to get verbally abused, you shouldn't have to be publicly verbally abused. It's bad enough to get yelled at, but to have to be observed getting yelled at and just taking it: that really stinks.

[gw67]

dkbaseball - Williams used to have open practices while at Cole but apparently the security setup is better at Comcast and my understanding is the practices are no longer open. I attended a couple of their open practices at Cole while waiting for my wife to finish visiting an old friend at the school and Williams didn't lose his cool either time. Of course, I was pretty far away and there may have been a few expletives that I didn't hear. One of the ex-Terps football players taped early football practices with the OK from Fridge and they were shown on local TV. I suspect that there was a good deal of editing to cut out the shouting and cussing. They plan to do the same for early basketball practices. Should be fun to see the final product.

gw67

[jma4life]

Dkbaseball, Coach K's primary responsibility is to teach the players. It is quite possible that having an open practice would detract from his ability to teach the team. So while it would be great to have open practices, if it detracts from his main job, the job he is getting paid for, it is not something which should be done. Having done some coaching, I personally feel that I do a much better job when I have a closed gym setting than when there are a lot of people watching. The players are more focused on me than on outside distractions.

And let's not forget that Duke is trying to win games. They're working on plays, they're criticizing guys, etc. These things just aren't as effective with a crowd watching.

Stating that practices should be open for the benefit of the learning of society is definitely an argument that I have never heard (nor imagined hearing) proposed.

[RainingThrees]

Abdul Gaddy has decommited from Arizona. He was their last class of 2009 commit.

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recru...g%2fonthetrail