Lute Olson, Hall of Fame coach, Arizona icon, dies at 85

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Lute Olson, the Corridor of Fame mentor who turned Arizona into a university basketball powerhouse and led the software to its lone nationwide title in 1997, has died. He was 85.

Olson’s family explained he died Thursday evening. The bring about of death wasn’t provided.

”Coach Olson is the complete very best, one of the greatest coaches ever and one of the greatest human beings ever,” Ga Tech mentor and former Arizona player Josh Pastner tweeted. ”My thoughts of gratitude and appreciation are unable to be set in words and phrases. I really like him dearly. My coronary heart hurts, but I know he is now in heaven. May god bless his family. (hash)RIP”

Olson used 24 seasons at Arizona, revitalizing a supporter base in the desert whilst transforming a software that experienced been to the NCAA Event just 3 moments in 79 several years before he was hired in 1983.

Olson initially took the Wildcats to the NCAA Event for the duration of his 2nd period in Tucson to start a string of 25 straight appearances. The streak would have been the 3rd-longest in NCAA history, but the 1999 and 2008 appearances had been afterwards vacated by the NCAA for impermissible benefits to gamers and recruiting violations.

The Wildcats received a nationwide championship under Olson in 1997 with a staff led by Mike Bibby, Jason Terry and Miles Simon. Olson’s Arizona teams achieved the Remaining 4 4 moments and shed the 2001 nationwide title match to Duke.

”It’s difficult to set into words and phrases how significantly Lute Olson intended to me,” Warriors and former Olson player Steve Kerr tweeted. ”He was an astounding mentor & a wonderful person. Staying element of the U of A basketball family transformed my everyday living forever. I will never ever neglect Coach O, those people great nights at McKale and all my teammates. Thank you Coach- I really like you!”

Olson received a university-record 589 online games at Arizona, eleven Pac-10 titles and was named the conference mentor of the yr 7 moments. He led Arizona to twenty straight twenty-win seasons and is one of five coaches in NCAA history with 29 seasons of at least twenty wins.

Olson’s 327 conference victories are most in Pac-10/12 history and he was inducted into the Naismith Corridor of Fame in 2002. A statue of Olson keeping the nationwide title trophy was unveiled exterior McKale Center in 2018.

”It’s rare that a person is a Corridor of Famer and even now under appreciated,” former Arizona and NBA player Richard Jefferson tweeted. ”I’ll generally sense like you never ever got the credit score you deserved as a chief, family person, grandfather, mentor and as a mentor. I really like you Coach O.”

Olson experienced a series of well being troubles late in his coaching job, main to his retirement in 2008.

Arizona declared minutes before the 2007-08 period opener that Olson would choose an indefinite depart of absence. Associate head mentor Kevin O’Neill coached the Wildcats on an interim foundation the relaxation of the period.

Olson was set to return for the 2008-09 period, but the university declared his retirement after he skipped practice and a operate in Tucson. His health care provider held a information conference five days afterwards, declaring Olson experienced an to begin with undiagnosed stroke before in the yr, triggering melancholy and impaired judgment. Olson also was hospitalized in 2019 after struggling a minimal stroke.

Olson remained in Tucson and became a frequent at McKale Center for the duration of his retirement, drawing cheers every single time he appeared on the movie board. The floor at McKale Center was named Lute & Bobbi Olson Court in 2001 in honor of Olson and his initially wife, Bobbi.

Bobbi Olson died in 2001 because of to difficulties from ovarian cancer. Olson remarried twice and is survived by his 3rd wife, Kelly, and five youngsters.

”I will pass up observing him at our residence online games and listening to our crowd yell, ‘Lute!”’ current Arizona mentor Sean Miller explained in a assertion ”My family joins all of the current associates of the Arizona Basketball software in sending our condolences and prayers to his wife, Kelly, and the complete Olson Household. I am forever grateful to be a element of the basketball software and neighborhood that he impacted so immensely. Coach O will certainly be skipped, but generally remembered by us.”

Born on a farm exterior Mayville, North Dakota, on Sept. 22, 1934, Olson led his superior university staff to the 1952 condition championship and was a 3-activity athlete at Augsburg School in Minnesota from 1953 to 1956.

Olson begun his job as a superior university mentor in Minnesota and Southern California before turning into the head mentor at Lengthy Beach front City School, in which he received the condition junior university title in 1971.

He used one period at Lengthy Beach front State before heading on to mentor nine seasons at Iowa. He led the Hawkeyes to the NCAA Event his final five seasons, which include a excursion to the 1980 Remaining 4.

Olson experienced a job record of 780-280 in 34 several years as a Division I mentor.

—

Far more AP university basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25