By
Keith Carmona
Arizona Daily Wildcat
UA men's basketball coach wins Wildcat's Coach of the Year award
From the anguish of loss to the rapture of victory, there isn't a human emotion Lute Olson hasn't braved this season.
He eagerly awaited a season full of expectations and agonized over improbable early losses. He grieved the death of his wife of 47 years and celebrated his team's Final Four appearance.
Olson's Wildcats may have come one game short of winning a National Championship, but the season was far from disappointing.
That Lute Olson was able to inspire his players following Bobbi Olson's death from ovarian cancer on Jan. 1 is admirable. But leading his team to the National Championship game in Minneapolis after a season afflicted by such misfortune was spectacular.
For this, Olson was voted The Arizona Daily Wildcat's Coach of the Year for 2000-01.
Arizona (28-8, 15-3 Pac-10) finished the season by playing in a title game that they laid claim to from the first day of practice last October.
The Wildcats may have lost to Duke 82-72 in the NCAA Championship game in Minneapolis, but Olson said the team's appearance in the Final Four is an achievement in itself.
"It was a very difficult year emotionally," Olson said. "In terms of taking a look at the team, they came very close to reaching their potential. That's always our goal when we start the year. Looking back at it, you are never completely happy if you don't win the big prize."
When Olson took a three-week leave of absence in January after his wife died, he rejoined an Arizona team that had already suffered five losses and were well below its preseason No. 1 ranking.
But he returned with vigor.
The Wildcats won 20 of their final 23 games, reasserting themselves as one of the nation's top teams, despite the midseason hardships.
"The community has been tremendous," Olson said. "The kind of reaction has helped our entire family get through all this."
Upon arriving in Minneapolis, Arizona passed by a billboard that read "Four Bobbi."
"We keep saying that we want to do it for Mrs. O because it would be a great honor for her and coach, but also because she shared our faith that we could achieve this," forward Michael Wright said. "All the hard work and dedication has brought us from a miserable season to being on the verge of doing something great.
"It feels great because we know she's looking down on us."
Olson recorded his 600th career win and his 400th victory at Arizona during the season and was presented with the John Wooden Legends of Coaching Award last month.
Despite this season being both one of the most successful and the most difficult to endure personally, Olson said that there's no way he's giving up basketball.
Speculation was made following the season that UA fans may have seen the last of the silver-haired head coach. But upon returning home from vacation in Mexico with his family, the Wildcat coach laughed off those rumors.
"I have said all along that when I decide to give it up it, is going to be because of my health, energy or feeling that I can't do the job anymore," he said. "I am excited about the upcoming season."
