In December of 2006 HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel headed up to New York with some friends to see his Arizona Wildcats on 1 of their very rare basketball road trips to the East Coast. The local alumni club had scheduled a pregame pep rally at a bar near Madison Square Garden before everyone walked over to see the team face Louisville and the place was packed. Arizona coach Lute Olson showed up to give a short speech, looked around for an open place to stand, and after finding none he asked Jon if he could help him up so that he could stand on a chair to address the crowd. Jon eagerly gave him a hand, became the envy of everyone in the bar, and capped off an unforgettable night by watching his alma mater beat the Cardinals 72-65 at “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” Nobody realized at the time that they were witnessing Lute’s last season in Tucson, but earlier this week he was named a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2019 for the 2nd time (after previously being inducted in 2006). He made 28 NCAA tourneys in a 29-year stretch from 1979-2007 at Iowa/Arizona, won a combined 13 conference regular season titles as a D-1 coach, was an 8-time conference COY, and led Arizona to its only NCAA title in 1997. Jon got to chat with Lute about his spectacular career a few years ago and is proud to present that previously unpublished interview for the very 1st time: congrats Coach!
In 1952 you helped lead your Grand Forks High School team to a North Dakota state basketball title: what did it mean to you to win a title? The goal is to be the last team standing at whatever level you play at. It really feels good to get to the end of the season and have no one left to play!
In the 1979 NCAA tourney as coach at Iowa, Stan Joplin scored 15 PTS and made a 20-foot shot at the buzzer in a 2-PT win by Toledo: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? Anytime you are in the tourney it is 1-and-done so that was very disappointing…but it might have helped us the next year. You always feel bad for the seniors because it is very difficult to take.
In the 1980 NCAA tourney Steve Waite scored 15 PTS (4-4 FG/7-7 FT) and converted a 3-PT play with 5 seconds left in a 1-PT win over Georgetown: did you think that your team had enough momentum to win the title that season? Yes I did. We beat Syracuse/Georgetown, who were 2 of the top teams in the country. Ronnie Lester was 1 of the top PGs in the country but he hurt his knee in a Christmas tourney. We were good enough to win it all but Ronnie hurt his knee again in the tourney: he was 1 of the best PGs I ever had.
In the 1982 NCAA tourney Brian Kellerman scored 14 PTS and made a 15-foot jumper that bounced high off the rim before dropping through at the buzzer in a 2-PT OT win by Idaho: did you have any change in your coaching philosophy when it came to regulation vs. overtime? No: we worked every day in practice on late-game situations and won a lot more than we lost in situations like that.
In 1986 you coached team USA to a 2-PT win over the USSR in the FIBA World Championship gold medal game (which remains the last US amateur basketball team to win an international competition): what was it like to face a 21-year old Arvydas Sabonis (who scored 16 PTS)? It was a special time for me: that was the only amateur US team to ever win the World Championship. Most of the foreign press felt that we would never make the final in Madrid but we beat Brazil quite easily (96-80) before facing the Soviets. David Robinson was our only senior: everyone else on the roster was an underclassman. After seeing Sabonis in person, his size/shooting ability made you wonder that if he had come over to the US earlier he might have become 1 of the 15-20 best players in NBA history. Even so he still had a great career. The USSR had a lot of other really good players too so it was a huge upset on our part.
In the 1993 NCAA tourney as coach at Arizona, Steve Nash scored 10 PTS in a 3-PT upset by Santa Clara (the 2nd game ever won by a #15-seed): do you think that we will ever see a #16-seed upset a #1-seed? I do not think so because there is a huge difference in talent. Steve Nash was a great player and their whole team had shot the lights out in their conference tourney. That was 1 of my biggest disappointments as coach of Arizona.
Take me through the magical 1997 NCAA tourney, where you became the only team to ever beat 3 #1 seeds in the same tourney:
AJ Bramlett had 12 PTS/12 REB in a 3-PT win over top-ranked Kansas: was your team out for revenge after a 3-PT loss to the Jayhwaks in the 1996 NCAA tourney? I think that was a key to our win. We had lost to them in Colorado in 1996. Our best defensive player (Joe McLean) got food poisoning at dinner the night before that game and had to go to the hospital: he tried to give it a go but was just too weak. Our guys felt that we would have won if Joe had been healthy so we were not afraid of the Jayhawks even though they were ranked #1 for most of the year.
Tourney MOP Miles Simon scored 30 PTS in a 4-PT OT win over Providence, 24 PTS in an 8-PT win over North Carolina, and 30 PTS in a 5-PT OT win over defending champion Kentucky to win the title: what made Simon such a great player, and what was the reaction like when you got back to campus? Miles is a tremendous competitor and a great leader. Some people viewed him as cocky but he was just confident in himself and his teammates. We had different guys step up at different times to get us there and by the time we got to the Final 4 we felt like we could win it. Kentucky had an outstanding ballclub but they did not come out in a press due to our speed/quickness.
In the 2001 NCAA tourney title game Loren Woods had 22 PTS/11 REB in a 10-PT loss to Duke: what was it like to face Coach K with a title on the line? Duke was very good and had about 8-10 McDonald’s All-Americans: we were a fairly young team ourselves at that point but did an outstanding job. Luke Walton had a broken thumb so we were not at full strength. You have to be good to get there…but you have to be lucky to win it.
In the 2003 NCAA tourney Channing Frye/Jason Gardner each scored 22 PTS in a 1-PT 2-OT win over Gonzaga: where does that rank among the most exciting games of your career? I think that it was a classic game because Gonzaga was really good. They had a 17-foot shot toward the end of regulation that could have won it. It was a case of 2 teams playing their hardest: I think that ESPN Classic has shown that game a number of times.
Take me through the 2005 NCAA tourney:
Salim Stoudamire scored 19 PTS and made an off-balance jumper with 2.8 seconds left in a 1-PT win over Oklahoma State: what is the key to setting up a game-winning shot in the huddle? You want to get the ball into the hands of your best shooter. The great thing about Salim is that not only was he a great shooter but he could create his own shot as well. We wanted Salim to take the final shot but only if he had a great look. I get asked a lot about who was my best shooter: Steve Kerr was the best at coming off of a screen but Salim was the best at creating his own shot.
After opening up a 15-PT lead with just over 4 minutes left in regulation, IL had a 20-5 run to force OT, and Hassan Adams missed a 3 at the buzzer to give Illinois a 1-PT OT win in 1 of the most thrilling tourney games ever (Deron Williams had 22 PTS/10 AST): what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? It was a horrible feeling because that was my only senior class that did not make it to at least 1 Final 4. There were 19,000 Illini fans at the arena in Rosemont. I still think that the officials thought the game was over with 3 minutes left and just stopped working: Illinois was trying to foul us but the refs would not even call a foul.