Picking the 25 greatest wins of Lute Olson’s Hall of Fame coaching career was no easy task. There were almost 800 of them, after all.
We’re listing the top 25 wins belonging to Olson, who died Aug. 27 at age 85. We’re limiting the selections to just Olson’s tenure in Tucson. (Almost all of them, anyway).
Today: Wins No. 20-16 on Lute’s all-time list.
20. Chopping ’em down to size
There was a time during Olson’s tenure when neither UCLA nor Arizona were the Pac-10’s premier powerhouse. For a stretch in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Stanford was a force to be reckoned with. Casey Jacobson, the Collins twins and a cast of contributors formed the core of a top-ranked team.
Not that they proved much of a challenge for Olson.
A year after beating top-ranked Stanford in Maples Pavilion on Jan. 8, 2000, the Cats again prevailed again. Michael Wright dropped in a layup with 3 seconds left to lift Arizona to a 76-75 win over the No. 1 Cardinal on March 8, 2001.
19. How sweet it is
After suffering stinging defeats in the previous two NCAA Tournaments, the 1993-94 Wildcats were resolved to make their mark. They did so on the defensive end, at least in a punishing 82-70 Sweet 16 win over Louisville. The Cats held the Cardinals to just 37% shooting; Khalid Reeves ruled the day with 29 points.
Arizona players Kenny Lofton, far left, Joe Turner and Steve Kerr box Iowa player B.J. Armstrong during the West Regional semifinal game of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.
18. Knocking out a familiar foe
Arizona’s 1988 Sweet 16 win over Iowa was a stark reminder of what the Hawkeyes lost when Olson bolted for Tucson — and what the Wildcats gained.
The UA entered the matchup as a No. 1 seed and Iowa as a No. 5 and the Cats showed why, rolling to 61 second-half points on the way to a 99-79 win. Sean Elliott and Steve Kerr combined to score 42 points.
17. A Sun Devil sweep to start
From the start, Olson had ample success against Arizona’s rival to the north. The Wildcats won both their games against Arizona State in Olson’s first season, with the latter of the two — a 65-64 Arizona win on Feb. 17, 1984 — kicking off a five-game winning streak that helped prove the Cats were on the rise.
Lute Olson talks to his team as he sets the strategy for the last moments of regulation against Stanford at Maples Pavilion.
16. An OT win to wrap it up
He didn’t know it at the time, but Olson’s final win on the sidelines was a fun one. The Wildcats needed overtime, but that’s where they prevailed on March 3, 2007 in a 85-80 win over Stanford. The Wildcats would go on to lose to Oregon in the conference tournament and to Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and Olson never coached a game again.
