Excerpts from the final press conference of University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson

December 4, 1:17 PMPhoenix Sports ExaminerTom Kessler

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Background:

Lute Olson retired as University of Arizona head basketball coach on Oct. 23, 2008. During his 24 seasons with the Wildcats, the legendary Olson coached Arizona to 11 Pac-10 titles, 23 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament, four trips to the Final Four (in 1988, 1994, 1997 and 2001) and one national championship (in 1997).

After taking a leave of absence for the entire 2007-08 season, the 74-year-old Olson was back on the Tucson campus this fall in his role as head coach, preparing the team for the 2008-09 campaign. On Oct. 21, 2008, Olson held his annual media day press conference, at which he talked to approximately two dozen reporters about the upcoming season. Olson said during the session that he felt re-energized, and he also praised Kevin O’Neill for the job O’Neill did as Arizona’s interim head coach in 2007-08.

The Oct. 21 press conference turned out to be Olson’s last meeting with the media as Arizona head coach. Olson did not attend the Oct. 23 press briefing at which University of Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood announced that Olson had decided to retire, effective immediately. On Oct. 24, Livengood named Russ Pennell, whom Olson had hired as an assistant in May, to be the interim head coach for the 2008-09 season. Livengood said he would hire a permanent head coach after the season.

Olson’s final media day press conference from Oct. 21, 2008, began with his introductory statement.

Olson’s introductory statement from Oct. 21, 2008:

“We have a lot of freshmen,” Olson said to the reporters who gathered in a conference room at McKale Center, “so it’s been very much of a learning experience from the standpoint of working with the staff and getting a lot of interchange of ideas and thoughts, certainly a lot to offer from all of them. I think they are adjusting to their responsibilities. With the young players, it’s always difficult for freshmen, and this year is no different. One of the biggest challenges is the fact that there are so many freshmen that the competition against the upperclassmen is not where it is generally accustomed to. So that has certainly been a challenge in a lot of different ways.

“Excuse my voice, but you can tell this is the start of the practice season.

“With Chase (Budinger), Jordan (Hill) and Nic (Wise). With Chase the additional weight and strength and the fact that he has really developed into I think the leader of the team at this point, the primary leader … he is shooting the ball a whole lot better than he has ever shot it. Obviously we are going to try to get him as many shots as we can get him.

“With the others, Fendi (Onobun) with the off-season surgery, he was not allowed to do anything like for three months or so, and then started conditioning with the underwater treadmill. But other than being stiff and sore at this point, he has not expressed any pain. I think if you ask any of them at this point they’re all stiff and sore, but that’s not, you can probably talk to any kid in the country the first four days and they are going to be stiff and sore.

“With Alex Jacobson, I think there has been a lot of improvement. He’ll continue to work hard. He’s a very hard-working young man, and he has spent a lot of time strengthening his body, particularly his lower body to withstand the pushing and shoving that goes on inside.

“With the freshmen at this point, Jeff Withey worked very hard on the weights, that’s good news. He has been very diligent in his work in the weight room.

“With Kyle Fogg, he’s not accustomed to playing a point position, so he’s been in the off-guard position. He’s very quick and long and will develop into I think a very fine defender. He shoots the ball very well from mid-range.

“I should mention Jamelle Horne in that sophomore class also. He has tremendous athletic ability; the thing with Jamelle is getting him to just stay totally focused on what he needs to do. There’s no question about what his ability is.

“We’ve added a local player for additional depth with D.J. Shumpert. I think he has done a nice job. He’s certainly a hard worker and very happy to be here.

“I should have mentioned also in the sophomore class a guy that can really shoot the ball is Zane Johnson. Zane can shoot it probably as well as anybody that we have.”

Background: Following his introductory statement, Olson fielded questions from the media about the upcoming 2008-09 season. Here are some of his answers.

Question: Can you talk about Chase (Budinger)? Some of the things you’ve talked about, when a kid declares for the NBA Draft and he comes back your biggest concern for them is not thinking about ahead but playing for today. Your thoughts on that with him?

Lute Olson: “That’s not a problem at all. As a matter of fact, when I visited with he and his dad about when he was going to test the waters, I said, ‘I think it is going to be a good experience for you; you’ll get a chance to see what you need to get better at.’ The one thing that I made very clear to him was that, ‘OK, if you’re back, are you back as an NBA guy using the year getting ready for the NBA?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely not, if I’m back, I’ll be back as a Wildcat, period.’ I think anybody that knows Chase knows that you don’t have to worry about that.”

Question: Besides your voice, how’s the practice now, getting back into it?

Olson: “Well, it’s been, I guess losing my voice is not an unusual situation for the start of practice. There is a lot of things that they continue to be, you have to be right there to remind all the time the things that they’re doing or not doing. So the voice is pretty constant. But otherwise with the practices, we’ve had a lot of hours on the court now.”

Question: Are you as energized as you hoped you would be getting back to it?

Olson: “Yes.”

Question: Do you find that there is un-learning to do from last year at all?

Olson: “No, not really. I think with that, I think Kevin (O’Neill) worked very, very hard with the coaching staff on developing fundamental aspects of the game. We’ve done more work now with … trying to be in attack mode. But a lot of the things that he taught last year are very important to us right now.”

Question: (A reporter asks about the difference between the 2007-08 season and the 2008-09 season.)

Olson: “I think I would say on that the difference is that last year was last year and I was having problems with the energy level. I feel much more energized at this point.”

Question: Do you feel different, you’ve coached all your life, and then you’re not there, that year being out, do you feel different just being out there three hours a day all of a sudden, or did you slip right back into it?

Olson: “That’s not really been a problem. We spend a lot of hours here as a staff, in terms of reviewing tapes of the previous day’s practice and what we need to do better from a teaching standpoint, how we can be more helpful to the players.”

Question: With the off-season with all the changes, the hires you had to make, the recruits you had to do, how did that affect you energy-wise, was it good, bad? It wasn’t a normal off-season I guess is what I’m saying.

Olson: “No. It wasn’t. In April as soon as we were able to be out, I was out a lot at that point because I thought it was very important that the players saw me out there and that I was ready to go. So it really didn’t take any adjusting that way. The biggest thing is being out where you’ve been a fan. Watching on TV is a whole lot tougher than it is on courtside, because courtside you’re so busy you don’t have time to think about what happened to you. You’re too busy making whatever adjustments that need to be made.”

Question: So given last season, Coach, does this perhaps rank as one of your more difficult coaching challenges in recent memory?

Olson: “I think it is because of the number of freshmen and the fact that even with the sophomores what we’re doing is new to them as well. So it is definitely a huge challenge.”

Question: You said that when you were out you wanted the recruits and kids to see you. Why was that, number one, and number two, was it strange for you just going out and seeing them and knowing that maybe people were looking at you, like, Hey, how’s Coach, what’s he like now, we haven’t seen him in a while, that sort of thing?

Olson: “April is really all about that anyway, being out there. But I think because I’ve been out a year I think would be more important.”

Question: Do you think kids were evaluating you more than maybe in years past?

Olson: “No, I didn’t feel that. I just felt that they needed to see me, but I don’t think it was a case of evaluating.”

Question: You said last spring you were planning to coach beyond 2011 when your contract is up. Is that still the plan?

Olson: “No. Everything is a year-to-year situation with that. Because I’ve said that the health, the energy, how well you’re communicating with the kids, the fact that anyone that’s recruiting against us obviously is saying that, ‘You know, Coach might not be there, Arizona’s a good place but are you going there to play for Coach Olson or are you going to Arizona for being at Arizona?’ What I’ve said with the kids in the fall visits, the home visits basically has been that. I don’t think anyone can make any promises like that.”

Question: The idea of this being a year-to-year thing and you never know what’s going to happen, did you, from your perspective, is that new?

Olson: “No, it’s something that I’ve said all along, that it’s going to depend on those factors.”

Question: How do you feel your staff is coming along?

Olson: “I think the staff is a lot like the team. The team is a very together group, and with the amount of time that we spend together as a staff, we are very comfortable with one another.”

Question: With his background, does (assistant coach) Mike Dunlap maybe have a more expanded role?

Olson: “Yeah, he was hired for that reason. I am very pleased with Mike. He’s been offered a number of jobs and has experience in coaching at below the D-1, but also D-1 as an assistant with Coach Raveling at Iowa for what I think was one year there plus at SC.”

Question: You said he (Mike Dunlap) is going to do a lot on defense; how would you define his role exactly?

Olson: “He has been working with the big guys. The defense will be his number one assignment, but that would be just like you say, well, in Reggie’s case it’s with defense but that is the area of concentration, but everyone on the court is a teacher whether it’s on the offensive end or the defensive end.”

Question: Is (assistant coach) Reggie Geary with the guards and Russ Pennell with the wings?

Olson: “Yeah, that’s primarily it, although because of the system it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference who’s the forwards and who’s the guards. It’s more like the three perimeter guys are a mixture of guards and forwards.”

Question: What is your sense of the mood of the guys after last year? Many of them had a difficult time under Kevin (O’Neill), and you came back in April and had that first practice and you said you were returning back to Arizona basketball; that’s what you told them. What’s the mood now like when you’re returning to Arizona basketball, up-and-down, tempo-wise?

Olson: “I think because of the circumstances that Kevin really had to play a lot of half-court basketball, but that’s also something that occurs when somebody comes out of the pros.”

Question: But guys like Chase (Budinger) will flourish more in the up-and-down; I’m sure they are more appreciative of playing that style?

Olson: “I think it depends on what the guys’ strengths are. Generally speaking with the guys that we’ve brought into this program, they’ve come here because they like to have up-tempo style.”

Question: It sounds like, now that a little time has passed, maybe what happened last year was OK from what you’re saying as far as maybe they got exposed to some things?
 

Olson: “What I’m saying is I think that the staff did a very good job with them. And it may be that the philosophy was different, but I think they got the most out of them.”

Question: When you look back at tapes from last year, did anything surprise you either positively or negatively?

Olson: “Well, yeah. I reviewed all the tapes in the off-season. There are some things with Jordan Hill that obviously they would have liked him not picking up the fouls. Because when you look at while he was in the game his record was good, and he was very productive when he was in the game. And that’s been one of the primary things that Mike has been really trying to impress on Jordan, that, hey, we need him on the floor. Is that easy? No. It’s going take some time, but it better not take very much time.”

Question: Your evaluation of how the staff did last year, did some of that come from sitting and watching the tapes or have you thought this all along?
 

Olson: “No. They would tell you the same thing.”

Question: I mean about you saying that they had an overall, they did a good job with what they had and got the most out of them, is that something that did your opinion change at all or has it always been like that?

Olson: “No. I felt that given the circumstances that they did a real good job with the team.”

Question: Does the extra distance on the three-point shot change the way any of your perimeter guys may have to play? Do you give somebody a red light instead of a green light?

Olson: “Well, I think with everyone it changes. Now the guys who are shooting threes will have to be very good shooters. You know, a foot makes a lot of difference. There will be a lot of guys that probably got green lights before that don’t have them now.”

Question: Any of your guys?

Olson: “Yeah. They have to prove their ability to be able to hit that shot. It’s just like we’ve told the guards through the years that closer is not necessarily better because of the challenge that they face when they get in the lane. It’s like outside there are probably a lot of, there will be a lot of guys that will be better off with the fake of the shot, one dribble, escape, dribble to get into the range that is a good range for them. I think the change is going to be a nationwide change.”

Question: For the better or the worse?

Olson: “I think for the better.”

Question: You talked about Chase (Budinger) being a leader. Does more have to come out of him personality-wise that you’re hoping to see? You know he is kind of a quiet guy.

Olson: “Yeah. He is normally a quiet guy but he’s working very, very hard at, I mean everyone recognizes what his abilities are, he just needs to constantly be the guy that’s expressing himself. He’s a totally different guy on the court than he was, say, when he came here as a freshman. He’s still not a blabbermouth. But he’s gotten a lot better.”

Question: Can Fendi Onobun be an X factor in taking pressure off the other big guys? How much of a role can he handle?

Olson: “He obviously has a great body to play. I think last year there were times also that he got himself in foul trouble by probably, you have to be aggressive but you have to be smart about the aggression as well.”

Question: In general, how good do you feel this team can be? You’ve got three guys that you know about and a bunch of question marks.
 

Olson: “Really, I think it is too early to say. The schedule is tougher than nails again.”

Question: How much did you miss these sessions with the media?

Olson: “Well, first of all in the spring when I had that (a press conference on April 1 at which he announced that he was back as head coach and that interim head coach Kevin O’Neill would not be returning to the staff), that came under very difficult circumstances. I’ve wished I had that hour back many times. I don’t know, in 26 years on the job, I don’t think it’s been a case of where the media sessions have been other than very good sessions from a standpoint of interchange of words and ideas. So that’s, I guess once every 26 years you have the right to be other than what you should be.”