Lute Olson passes away

#4      
He left Iowa who he had taken to the final four for a much lesser job at Arizona. Arizona had been in the WAC just a few years before Olson arrival and had done absolutely nothing in their few years in the PAC10.

In his autobiography, the section on leaving Iowa is revealing. He talks about his wife going grocery shopping the morning after a particularly hard loss and having some employee confront her with "I'm surprised you would be out this morning after last night".

Iowa hired a great one and much like Nick Saban at LSU, the fan base ran him out.
 
#5      
He left Iowa who he had taken to the final four for a much lesser job at Arizona. Arizona had been in the WAC just a few years before Olson arrival and had done absolutely nothing in their few years in the PAC10.

In his autobiography, the section on leaving Iowa is revealing. He talks about his wife going grocery shopping the morning after a particularly hard loss and having some employee confront her with "I'm surprised you would be out this morning after last night".

Iowa hired a great one and much like Nick Saban at LSU, the fan base ran him out.

Never knew that story. Thanks for sharing. As much as Lute became a thorn in our side as a rival at Arizona, thank goodness he didn't stay at Iowa. Makes me feel old to see coaches like him and Lou passing this year. RIP, thanks for some of the most memorable Illini games of all-time both wins and losses going head-to-head with your teams.
 
#7      
As a Wildcat alum and athlete, it is a sad day for the Wildcat family. That said, I did not admire his style which was too helter-skelter for me. But he did "appear" to run a clean program and one cannot argue with his success in making the program competitive with the best. That said, I have little admiration for what Miller has done, or should I say, the way he has done it.
 
#9      

altenberger22

South Carolina
In my lifetime of following Big Ten/Iowa basketball, I'd rank the coaches as follows:

1. Dr. Tom Davis
2. Lute Olsen
3. Steve Alford
4. Fran
5. George Raveling
6. Todd Lickliter
 
#10      
I think I’d put Raveling in third but I don’t have much memory left. I could be way off.
 
#13      

foby

Bonnaroo Land
Lou, Lute and John. Wow.........coaching icons from my younger and more rabid days are falling fast.
 
#14      
We got to watch as Arizona replaced UCLA as the banner team in the Pac-12 because of Lute Olson. And he gave those 2005 Illini all they could handle.
 
#15      
I will always remember Lute taking a swig if his water on the sidelines with about 3:00 to go in the Illini game.
Like he was trying to be chill but you could kind of tell he knew it wasn’t quite over.