null
|
|
Monday, April 2
Olson's strength comes out in Wildcats
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
MINNEAPOLIS -- Jim Rosborough was getting ready for a Monday morning practice two months ago when the phone rang. It was Lute Olson: His head coach, his mentor, asking Rosborough, the associate head coach, if he could come back to practice in thirty minutes.
The answer was obvious. Yes, of course he could.
And ever since that January day, the Wildcats have grown tighter as a team, continuing an emotional mission that could have closure with a win over Duke and a national title Monday night at the Metrodome.
"For him to come back as fast as he could was incredible," Arizona senior center Loren Woods said. "It displayed a tremendous amount of courage."
Olson and his family have been enduring the kind of emotional pain that doesn't usually permeate a college basketball program. Olson lost his wife of 47 years Bobbi to ovarian cancer on New Year's Day. The photos of Arizona's last championship in 1997 all have Lute with Bobbi by his side, waving to the fans. Any shots of the parade in Tucson the next day included Lute and Bobbi together, as always.
|
“ |
But when he came back, he was the same man. I don't think he's changed a bit. He's still a good coach, a good teacher, a good man. ” |
|
|
— Eugene Edgerson,
Arizona senior forward |
Bobbi was everything to Lute, the one person who grounded and humbled him and kept the family tight. But her importance to the program couldn't be measured. Having the court at McKale Center renamed as "Bobbi and Lute Olson Court" proved how much she meant to Tucson and the university.
"We were married for 47 years and dated for two before that so it's difficult for me," Lute Olson said. "I've had a lot of letters from other people in different fields who have gone through this same thing. I've had friends who have gone through this same thing. It's difficult whether you're in coaching or whether you're in business or anything. It's a difficult thing to deal with when you've been together that long."
And seeing Olson break down was more than Arizona could handle. Any selfishness that permeated a roster filled with huge egos, of a potential all-American starting five, began to fade. The focus was on Olson and his family trying to help them get through an incredibly difficult time.
"It was real hard," Arizona junior Michael Wright said. "Just to see him cry made us cry. It just brought us down. We were real sorry. We couldn't practice for two days. It was crazy to see a man so strong break down. He was just crying and I didn't know what to do."
Olson needed time to grieve, but Rosborough and the staff knew he would return sooner than later. He had to. The two most important things in his life had always been family and basketball. His family implored him to go back to coaching, to get back into a regular routine as much as possible.
The hardest time for Olson might be when the season ends -- win or lose. But his family will be with him, just like they have been for months and during the NCAA Tournament. His son, Greg, was right by his side down an alleyway Saturday night at the Metrodome in a spot that Bobbi probably would have occupied. They watched a bit of the Duke-Maryland game together before he left the arena.
A number of his family, which includes daughters Vicki, Jodi, Christi, sons Greg and Steve and 13 grandchildren, were there in San Antonio after the Wildcats beat Ole Miss and Illinois. They'll be with him Monday night win or lose, and if they win the title, probably on the court to share the memorable moment.
"I'll probably be more exhausted than I've ever been in any of the years of coaching," Olson said. "But I don't feel exhausted now. I'm excited about the opportunity to play Monday night."
And that's what shows the strength of this man. He has always been the architect of Arizona, its staple. And when he returned to the team in late January, Olson stepped back into his usual role.
Wright said it took some time for the team to make adjustments in practice, but only because they saw a man that was so strong breakdown. Wright said the hugs were numerous but normalcy eventually returned.
|  | | Lute Olson has built a dynasty at Arizona, winning a national title in '97, nine Pac-10 crowns and going to 17 straight NCAA Tournaments. |
"Coach O is a very good teacher, been a teacher of the game of basketball and that person if you need some help that you can go up to and he'll do it for you," Arizona fifth-year senior Eugene Edgerson said. "At the beginning of the season, he was on us as far as discipline and we knew that had a lot to do with his personal situation with his wife. He had to keep his mind off of what was going on with his wife. We knew that."
Edgerson said the team was cognizant of Olson's stress in the fall when Bobbi's conditioned worsened, so much that he couldn't go on the trip to Connecticut because he needed to be by her side in early December. It got even worse when he left the team in late December, just days before she died.
"But when he came back, he was the same man," Edgerson said. "I don't think he's changed a bit. He's still a good coach, a good teacher, a good man."
To share anything with the team this personal showed a tremendous amount of character. It doesn't happen too often. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski knows all about the need to have a soulmate at home to comfort him during tense times and be a loving partner for a balanced, meaningful life.
"We don't as coaches share a lot with other people," Krzyzewski said. "You're not going to go to your team and say, 'I feel insecure today.' Or, 'I'm not feeling well. Will somebody hug me?' But your wife, she knows that without you even saying it. And she knows when to talk to you and when to just leave you alone. But she never leaves you alone. I mean in the right sense, by leaving you alone, she hasn't left you alone."
Krzyzewski said Bobbi was a constant presence in the coaching fraternity, a partner who everyone grew to know fondly.
"I'm so glad he has a great family to support him," Krzyzewski said. "He's a great guy. Lute is really a good man, a great coach. But he's in a tough situation. A really tough situation."
Olson's return from this tragic loss, and a potential national title, would culminate an incredible journey for him. He arrived in Arizona in 1983 from Iowa, three years after an improbable run of getting the Hawkeyes to the Final Four. His first season at Arizona ended with an 11-17 record, a year after the Wildcats had a one-win Pac-10 season that included a questionable call against Stanford in the one win.
"We had a lot of work to do when we got here," Olson said. "But the great thing about Arizona was the university and the climate. We had to recruit out West and get the kids that USC and UCLA didn't want. Not too many players wanted to play for a 1-17 team."
But Arizona landed an eventual player of the year in Sean Elliott from Tucson in 1986. Two years later, Arizona was in the Final Four in 1988. The 'Cats would return in '94 and then won it in '97.
Since then, Olson has won nine Pac-10 titles and been in 17 straight NCAA Tournaments. Recruiting continues to be national with this season's roster dominated by Midwesterners -- Loren Woods (St. Louis), Jason Gardner (Indianapolis) and Michael Wright (Chicago) -- and the best player in-state from his class in junior Richard Jefferson (Phoenix).
"We wanted to develop a program as opposed to one team," Olson said. "We didn't want the ups and downs; we wanted to try to be consistently good."
The players all spoke about the reasons they wanted to go to Arizona from the Midwest. The weather was one of them, but the winning tradition and Olson's coaching was atop the list.
Last week, Olson was nominated for the Basketball Hall of Fame, but that doesn't mean he's going to stop coaching. He's hurting with the loss of his wife, but he's still the same overriding presence on his program and, to some extent, the university and city.
"You have to admire what Arizona has done," Krzyzewski said. "I think it shows the strong character of all the kids in their program. Lute is an amazing leader. That's why their team is where they're at right now."
No matter what happens Monday night, Olson won't have closure on his wife's death. He will be done with an incredibly, emotionally-draining season. But a championship dedicated to his wife may ease a little of the hurt.
"The biggest thing with all that's been said about Bobbi's illness is that I just hope that women will become more aware of ovarian cancer as a threat," Olson said. "Our family's goal is to work with Bobbi's oncologist toward working on education and prevention. The disease is hardly discovered before the third stage. I'm hopeful we'll be able to have some effect on battling the disease, to have some sort of tests for it the way they do for breast cancer. The biggest problem is trying to find a way to detect it early."
Olson has handled all the questions and interviews about his emotions with incredible grace. He'll have to deal with it one more day before he can take some time to regroup. But, even then, he'll always have support from his family, his team, the Tucson community and from the college basketball family at large.
"Their focus is on Monday night and the national championship and there have been some difficult times along the way, but it has been documented enough," Olson said. "It's a special situation playing for the national title and I think we've looked at that from the start. You're going to see two teams that are very competitive. You wouldn't be here if you weren't competitive."
And this Arizona team, or the program for its second time, wouldn't be here without Lute Olson.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
 Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
|  |
|
|
