By
Ryan Finley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
It would be easy for UA head coach Lute Olson to sit down at his annual year-end press conference today and announce his retirement.
After all, Olson returned home from his Mexican vacation last night to find the cupboards practically empty. In the past two weeks, the silver-haired head coach has watched four players - Gilbert Arenas, Jason Gardner, Richard Jefferson and Michael Wright - leave UA for greener pastures.
It would be easy for Olson to follow suit, pack his bags and leave for a life of luxury in his summer home on Coronado Island near San Diego.
After all, he isn't getting any younger. At age 66, he could ride off into the sunset and be mentioned in the same breath as John Wooden, Denny Crum and Dean Smith.
What else would there be to prove, really? He finished this season just a few possessions away from his second national title. He was awarded the John R. Wooden Award for college basketball's coach of the year. He is more popular than ever among the media, the fans and the national elite.
With next year's UA team looking average on paper, Olson could have taken the easy way out.
The Wildcats return just two regulars - Luke Walton and Travis Hanour - from this year's team. Even with the addition of redshirts Rick Anderson and Andrew Zahn and five blue-chip recruits, the Wildcats will struggle to return to the exalted spot they held at the end of this season.
Olson could have made like Rick Pitino and left a sinking ship.
Guess what? He's not going anywhere.
UA undergraduate assistant coach Josh Pastner said yesterday that those within the program have been assured that Olson will stay a Wildcat for a long time.
"He's 100 percent coming back," Pastner - who has played for and coached alongside Olson - said. "There's no way he's going to retire. The program's on such a high right now. I see him going for another six, seven years."
Pastner said Olson was more motivated by the 82-72 loss to Duke in the NCAA Championships than he let on.
"He wants to win another title," Pastner said. "He can get the best players every year. Leaving would be kind of (taking the) easy way out."
Olson might want one last shot at a national title as an underdog, a role he relished when the Wildcats defeated Kentucky for the title in 1997. Like former UA head football coach Dick Tomey, Olson seems to do a better job as an underdog than as a favorite.
"He's done his best work as an underdog," Pastner said. "Even when we didn't have Loren (this year) or in 1995 or in 1996, he's done a great job."
As for the defections of some of UA's best talent to the pros? Olson isn't worried.
"No player is better than the program," Pastner said. "The program will always survive."
Today, Olson will do something his own players couldn't do: resist temptation.
