Wildcats pay tribute to Lute; Kurt Busch races to McKale; Azuolas Tubelis makes statement with shoes

At halftime of the second-ranked Arizona Wildcats’ 81-69 win over the Stanford on Thursday night, McKale Center played a video tribute to Lute Olson, who died in August 2020 at 85 years old.

The tribute was a photo montage — with Billy Joel’s “This is the Time” playing as background music — of Olson’s childhood, his early coaching stops and a Hall of Fame tenure that spanned 25 seasons with the Wildcats. Following the video, a slideshow of photos submitted by fans were shown on the video board. The photo slideshow continued well into second-half warmups.

The tribute was initially scheduled for Arizona’s Dec. 2 home game against Washington. Once the game was moved for COVID-19 issues within the Huskies’ program, the moment for Olson was re-scheduled for Thursday.

During the second timeout break of the second half on Thursday, the UA announced that it started the “Lute Olson Endowment for Excellence in Men’s Basketball” to support scholarships of men’s basketball players.

Every donation to the endowment on CrowdFund.Arizona.edu will be matched up to $250,000. Currently, 35 donors have combined do donate $65,385.

NASCAR’s Busch stops by McKale Center on West Coast trip

The NASCAR Xfinity Series just opened its 2022 schedule, with a race in Las Vegas scheduled for Saturday followed by a March 12 showdown at Phoenix Raceway.

NASCAR star Kurt Busch took a detour to Tucson to visit the UA; the former UA student attended Thursday night’s game at McKale Center. Busch and Midland lead singer Mark Wystrach, a Sonoita native and Salpointe Catholic High School grad, took part in a free-throw shooting contest during a first-half timeout. (Wystrach won.)

“It’s good to see the program as healthy as it is, and the energy level is through the roof this year,” Busch said before the game.

“I didn’t see (the success) coming, but when you look at all the players in this lineup, this is a global lineup and with Coach (Tommy) Lloyd coming in with his pedigree from Gonzaga, I thought it would take time for things to develop but to only have three losses, to wrap up the Pac-12 championship already, the sky’s the limit for this coach and this program.”

Busch has remained longtime friends with Arizona associate head coach Jack Murphy since they first met at Durango High School in Las Vegas. During Busch’s time as a student at the UA, the Wildcats won a national championship in 1997.

“I don’t remember going to class the entire month of March,” Busch said. “The excitement, it felt like the entire school took two weeks off when we won. … We were all over the place. We were at the frat house, the dorms, downtown and then came back. It was like we tried to conquer as many places as we could.”The 43-year-old Busch is driving the 45 car for 23XI Racing team owned by NASCAR legend Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan.“That basketball frame of mind that I got here at the U of A,” Busch said, “I carry it with me all the time.”

The big words

“STOP WAR.”

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— The words written on the back of Azuolas Tubelis’ shoes for Thursday’s game. Tubelis hails from Lithuania, roughly 500 miles from Ukraine.

Miller talks Kriisa recruitment

Arizona point guard Kerr Kriisa plays with swagger and bravado. If his confidence was ever in question, he quickly proved doubters wrong when he signaled for a “first down” like a football official after drawing a charge against USC on Tuesday.

Kriisa isn’t afraid of competition, which, in a way, brought him to the UA. Former Arizona head coach Sean Miller, who’s been a frequent guest on the “Field of 68” podcast network, revealed the moment Kriisa committed.

“He had to be convince to play college basketball, because he could’ve stayed in Europe and worked his way up (to play professionally),” Miller said earlier this week. “But he wanted to come play college basketball and that’s what he wanted to do, and then he had to make his decisions over Zoom and telephone calls over a period of time.”

Earning playing time would be a daunting task for Kriisa, who had to compete with James Akinjo during the 2020-21 season. Akinjo left following the season for Baylor.

“Just for the record, First Team All-Pac-12 (selection) and I think he’ll be First Team All-Big 12,” Miller said.Then there was Terrell Brown Jr., who — now at Washington — leads the Pac-12 with an average of 21.5 points per game.“He’ll be a First Team All-Pac-12 player,” Miller added. Arizona also had Kentucky transfer Jemarl Baker Jr., who transferred to Fresno State after Miller was fired, and current starters on the perimeter in Bennedict Mathurin and Dalen Terry.

Miller’s message to the Estonian guard: “‘If you’re going to leave Europe and come all the way to the United States and sign up to play college basketball, you want to have an opportunity, that’s part of this. … Kerr, look, as much as we’d love to have you … I just want you to know there’s a chance that you could come here and not play. I mean, you’re behind some really good players.’”

That didn’t deter Kriisa from coming to Arizona.

“‘What? You think I’m scared? You think telling me that is not going to make me want to come? I’m committing,’” Kriisa said, according to Miller. “That’s how he committed.”

He said it“He’ll forever be the face of the national championship here. … The way he went about his craft, it was such an old-school, classy approach.” — Busch on Olson’s legacy

The big number

25

Year since a first-year head coach won the Pac-12 regular-season championship. Lloyd became the first head coach since UCLA’s Steve Lavin in 1997 to win the conference title in his first season — the same year Arizona won the national championship.