He was a great coach and a great rival to the Illini over the years.
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.
Ah, geez, Doug. Davis was complicit with Satan in the Deon Thomas debacle. His name ought not appear on this forum.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
I look at it the other way....Lickliter is an easy No. 1 for me. Wish he would never have left.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