Olson: The Program Builder

What would have occurred had Iowa defeated Villanova on that March day back in 1983? "I don't think I would have [taken the Arizona job]," said Lute Olson, then the ever-popular Iowa coach who had led his team to the Final Four just three years earlier. For Arizona, it was the best thing that ever happened. It started a chain reaction in the hiring of Olson in what would later turn into a quarter century of success that has become Arizona basketball. Today, Arizona is one of the best programs in the country.

After UA fell to Villanova in the Elite Eight in the tournament, then–UA athletic director Cedric Dempsey sauntered up to Olson to inquire about UA's opening at head coach. "Gee, Cedric," Olson told Dempsey after the loss, "this isn't a great time right now. Why don't you give me a call tomorrow?" So Dempsey, Arizona's athletic director for less than a year, waited. He had his man ... but he needed to be patient.

A day later, it became a family affair with the Olson family meeting Dempsey in his hotel room. Soon after, Lute and Bobbi, his longtime wife, jumped on a private plane and headed to Tucson.

It had been a year earlier — when Arizona was looking to replace Fred Snowden — that UA had first inquired about hiring Olson. But Olson declined after he had spent time fund-raising for a new arena for Iowa, a team that was rolling with talent and had a bright future. Months earlier, USC had inquired about his availability. Stanford, Washington, and Cal had asked, too. But he turned them all down.

How was Arizona going to lure Olson, who in essence had a lifetime contract at Iowa, to move to Arizona, and a program that could only offer year-to-year contracts? The coach had 24 hours. Time was of the essence in part because Dempsey already had his backup ready. (It was Gene Bartow, the former UCLA head coach. And he, too, was in the hotel.)

Iowa wanted him to stay, but the Olsons' hearts eventually tipped the scales. "I think both of us were ready to move," Olson writes in his book Lute! The Story of My Life. "It was everything, the lack of privacy, being with family, returning to the West and from a recruiting standpoint I still had strong contacts in California."

And with that, Olson called Dempsey to say he'd come to Arizona. He was leaving a program that had a chance to win a national title for a program that was in disarray. It was challenge over (potential) championship, as the New York Times put it. "Some people thought I had lost my mind," Olson writes in his book.

Arizona fans were elated. On March 29, 1983, Olson signed his contract, eventually encouraging Arizona fans to get their season tickets immediately, since down the road it'd be too late. "I feel the potential is here at Arizona," Olson said in taking over a program that went 4–24 overall and 1–17 in the Pac-10 Conference. And with those words, his legacy at Arizona began.

"My hope here at Arizona back then was — knowing we couldn't recruit much locally and there was a lot to do — was to build a consistent program," Olson said, looking back. "I didn't think what has happened would happen. If we could just be fairly consistent and compete, maybe every once in a while have a special team we'd be OK. You thought that maybe it would be a middle-of-the-road conference team, looking at the other schools [with] an advantage over us." Yet in time, it was Arizona's advantage — because of Olson.

"In Lute's quarter of a century at UA, he developed a top-10 national basketball program that was consistently competitive," Dempsey said in the summer of 2014. "He was able to build a program with quality young people with integrity."

At the time of Olson's hire he was 48. Arizona's future looked bright — all because of its suave and debonair coach. In fact, Steve Kerr — years later and perhaps...