Olson to step down as Arizona coach

[Ptah]

Source: Olson to step down as Arizona coach

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3659611
Arizona's Lute Olson is stepping down as the school's men's basketball
coach, a source has told ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale.

Olson has a career record of 780-280 at Long Beach State, Iowa and Arizona.
He's 589-188 since heading to Arizona for the start of the 1983 season.

Arizona won the 1997 NCAA national title. His 27 NCAA Tournament appearances as a
coach are one behind Bob Knight for the all-time record. His streak of 24 straight tournament
appearances between 1985-2008 is second all-time to North Carolina's 27 (between 1975 and 2001).

Entering the season, Olson was second behind Mike Krzyzewski of Duke for most wins
among active NCAA Division I men's coaches. He was inducted into the Basketball
Hall of Fame in 2002.


LUTE OLSON RETIREMENT CONFIRMED

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/263822.php

By Bruce Pascoe and Patrick Finley
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.23.2008

Lute Olson will step down as head coach of the Arizona Wildcats, according to
the fathers of two UA recruits who said they were informed by UA assistant
coaches this morning.

[Ptah]

1. I think his greatest development of a player showed years later, re this player:

Quiz: He is the only non-Boston Celtic to win four straight NBA titles.

[cboy4]

2. Boy, if you follow the NBA, you'd have to be living under a

rock to not be able to identify Steve Kerr!!11!

:)

[Ptah]

3. Coach had stroke within last year

Now it is understood what happened to this Hall of Fame coach at the end of his career.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/264712

"Recently retired Arizona Wildcats basketball coach Lute Olson
had an initially undiagnosed stroke, probably within the past year,
his doctor said Tuesday.

"A Magnetic Resonance Imaging exam or brain scan taken Monday
discovered the stroke, said Olson's personal physician,
Steven D. Knope. It hit the frontal lobe but only affected
. some decision-making functions and not motor skills, Knope said.

"Olson, 74, also has suffered from atrial fibrillation, an
abnormal heart rhythm, for eight years. Although that condition
itself has not been dangerous enough to take Olson off the job,
Knope said, it could have produced a blood clot that
prompted the stroke. Strokes occur when blood fails to reach a
portion of the brain.

"Knope said he advised Olson to retire before last week
"to take care of health concerns," saying he noticed Olson's
changes in behavior and trouble handling his increasing workload
as the basketball season drew near."