Lute Olson

[fishy]

Wow, just heard a teaser from ESPN saying he was stepping down.

 

[jimmyjazz]

I didn't realize he had remarried.

 

[Bob in Houston]

The Link

 

[Texdoc]

Paging Mr Gaddy,... Paging Mr Gaddy....

C'mon Avery, get your buddy back into play for the good guys. Y'all can still play together, & that would certainly vault our recruiting class past nc.

HOOK 'EM,
Texdoc

 

[bierce]

Nice year for Lute:

Leave the job for an indefinite period.

File to divorce your second wife. Get involved in a big fight about whether monies were being improperly transferred.

Go back to the job, get rid of O'Neill, who claims he was lied to. Get rid of Simon.

Recruit a point guard too many. Withdraw offer from guy who committed because you got a prettier commit later.

Claim you didn't see or authorize the donation solicitation letter that went out with your electronic signature.

Get engaged to woman 27 years younger than you.

Now, maybe quit job before season starts.

Man, is that guy reliable or what?

 

[Bottlecap]

couldn't have happened to a bigger ********. See ya lute.

 

[DLev]

Well, I guess when I called him a douchebag for the way he treated O'Neil I was ahead of the curve.

 

[ghost]

Budinger is probably kicking himself for staying another year. I feel bad for those kids having to deal with the coaching turmoil. That said, they get to go to college for free and have tons of hot *** at their disposal. Life is tough.

 

[AustinBadger]

I don't know. I feel bad for ol' Lute. He was a great coach.

Getting old sucks.

 

[Texdoc]

Seriously, any of you recruiting gurus have any idea if this might affect Gaddy's decision????

HOOK 'EM,
Texdoc

 

[Bob in Houston]

Story on Scout from Telep that according to Gaddy, via text message, "Yes, it does."

 

[linkdapimp]

wow...

 

[Bob in Houston]

Doesn't look like Texas will be involved.

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[KosherHorn]

I'm sure Lute had this in mind for months. One waits until now to leave so the university has no choice but to hire one of the assistants as interim coach instead of put the assistants in position to be let go. IIRC, Dick Bennett did the same thing a few years back - I don't remember if it was at Wisconsin or Wash State, though.

What is most interesting is that UA instead said they would begin a national search instead of promoting one of the assistants. Perhaps that's to make Lute nervous. I assume UA is none too pleased about this being handled the way it was (if they never knew about this in the first place, which makes sense since Lute was not at the press conference), but I don't think what Lute did was without precedent.

What would be really cool is if UA brought Kevin O'Neill back and had him hire his own staff just to stick it to Lute. Obviously that's doubtful...

 

[Bob in Houston]

I can't imagine what he was thinking. I don't think Lute had anyone in mind... if he did, this was a terrible way to do it.

When UTEP hired Billy Gillispie from Bill Self's staff at Illinois, they did it in similar circumstances. Of course, that was a terrible UTEP team.

 

[bierce]

Mike Moser has decommitted.

I have a question. Does anyone have any recollection or information about the recruiting fallout last year? Olson declared he was taking leave on Nov. 4, ten days before the signing period began.

I'm sorry, but this is weird. Two straight years of walking away from the school on the eve of the signing period. You can't plan a better way to torpedo recruiting.

 

[KosherHorn]

Bennett did it at Wisconsin. From Wikipedia:

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[TheFied]

His name is on the court there. Does that change with how he handled things the past 2 years?

 

[Texdoc]

Man, I hate to beat a dead horse, but as a doctor It's my nature to keep looking for a pulse. Unless Gaddy & Avery have a bad vibe going, I can't imagine that RB couldn't get Gaddy to at least come visit. On paper we look like a perfect match for each other. Going to Oregon (for example) over here just doesn't make sense to me.

HOOK 'EM,
Texdoc

 

[GoHornsGo90]

Abdul...WE WANT YOU! He's got to see that this could be one of the best perimeter classes EVER recruited. The only missing piece is a superstar floor general {hint hint}.

 

[DLev]

I don't buy the helping out his assistant coach thing. His staff is all new this year because he drove all his assistants off last year.

 

[Bob in Houston]

Maybe he wanted to make sure that none of his old assistants could be hired.

 

[WJC88]

I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere but I have a couple of questions:

When did things sour so much between Coach Olson and the U of A community? Did things get bad before or after his wife died?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob in Houston]

The guy has looked his age for a couple of years, and the second wife didn't work out -- there's another side story/rumor on that one.

I think the school cut him a ton of slack on this leave of absence last year. Whether there are still hard feelings there, I just don't know -- none of it really has come out.

That, and Lute's name got attached to a booster club letter, an NCAA no-no. Was that a factor? Again, no one can be sure.

If there's attitude there, I imagine it's from Lute.

 

[AustinBadger]

Re Bennett at Wisconsin -

He retired in the early part of the season and handed it over to Brad Soderberg. He wanted Soderberg to take over permanently.

There was a lot of pressure on our then-AD Pat Richter to retain him but he opened up a search. A lot of idiot fans wanted Rick Majerus.

Richter - being the genius that he is - hired a lifelong D3 coach named Bo Ryan...........and the rest is history.

U of A needs to open up a search nationally. That is an elite program and they need an elite coach.

Maybe they will hire everyone's favorite Texan, Josh Pastner.