advancing to the NCAA West Regional semifinal.

After starting the year unranked in the Associated Press poll for the first time since November 1995, the Olson-led Wildcats served notice by stunning second-ranked Maryland and fifth-ranked Florida in its first two games. UA would rise as high as No. 3 in the polls and remained nationally ranked for the entire season.

Olson guided his charges through a season full of distractions in 2000-01 to one of his most rewarding results. Opening the year as the nation?s top-ranked team in five different polls, the 2000-01 Wildcats overcame two NCAA suspensions, the untimely passing of Olson?s wife, Bobbi, and his own five-game leave of absence to amass a 28-8 record, earn a berth in the school?s fourth Final Four and play in the national championship game. After struggling to an 8-5 start, the Cats finished the regular season with 15 wins in 17 games to emerge as a title contender. The team rolled through the first five games of the NCAA Tournament dispatching four conference champions and stretching its season-long win streak to 11 games, before falling to Duke, 82-72, in the NCAA Final. Through it all, the Wildcats displayed a toughness and determination seen in few teams across the country.

In a career that has been dotted with terrific coaching jobs, the 1999-2000 season may have been one of the best. Whether it was an injury to a key player, someone who left the program or the fact that there were three freshmen in the starting lineup, he was at his best all year in leading the team to a 27-7 record and the program?s ninth Pac-10 Conference championship. The season was also highlighted by his 600th career win, his 400th victory as Arizona?s head coach and the renaming of the McKale Center playing surface, ?Lute Olson Court?.

Arizona fans have grown accustomed to success when basketball season rolls around, but believe it or not, this same attitude did not exist before Olson?s arrival in the ?Old Pueblo? prior to the 1983-84 campaign.  

Back on March 29, 1983, when Olson took over the reigns in Tucson after nine successful seasons at Iowa, he was given a program that finished just 4-24 the season before. A quick and rapid rise to the top would ensue, much to the delight of the legions of hoop-crazed fans in the Arizona Sonoran desert.

Simply put, the 69-year-old Olson has created a basketball-rich tradition at the University of Arizona and made the Wildcats one of the programs that others attempt to emulate.  >>> CONTINUED