SAUL LOEB/Arizona Daily Wildcat Head coach Lute Olson holds up an award commemorating his 500th UA win after the Wildcats 107-73 win over Northern Arizona last night at McKale Center. Olson is the second UA coach to achieve the milestone.

Twenty years ago today, UA head basketball coach Lute Olson coached his first game at the helm of the Wildcat program when Arizona squeeked by Northern Arizona, 72-65, in McKale Center.

Two decades later, on the same court and against the same opponent, Olson picked up his 500th career win with the Wildcats, a feat matched by just one other coach in school history.

"It was great to get my 500th win at Arizona tonight," Olson said. "It has been a long haul; there have been a lot of games and a lot of great memories for me and this program."

Olson said he's most proud of his program's ability to stay among the best in the nation.

"I'm happy to be able to be consistent," said Olson, whose teams have won 10 Pacific 10 Conference titles and have made 19 straight NCAA tournament appearances. "When I first came I said, I don't want to develop a team, I want to develop a program."

Athletics director Jim Livengood honored Olson during a brief ceremony on the floor of McKale Center following the game. Olson rushed off the court as soon as he could, more interested in talking to his players about their efforts against NAU than receiving his own accolades.

The Wildcats, currently ranked fourth by the Associated Press and third in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, handily defeated the Lumberjacks, kicking off the UA program's 100th season of competition.

A sellout crowd of 14,533 was in attendance for the victory, which put Olson just nine wins behind Fred Enke's school record of 509. Enke won his last game in 1961 after spending 36 seasons as Arizona's head coach.

Freshman point guard Mustafa Shakur scored 14 points against NAU, his first game for the Wildcats. Shakur, who won his first game for Arizona on the same night as Olson's 500th, said he isn't sure how many he'll be around for during his UA career.

"I haven't done the math," Shakur said, adding that he's impressed by the accomplishment. "It's a great thing to be a part of something like that."

During the same week that the UA athletics department plans to name its fourth head football coach since 2000, Olson began his 21st season atop the Arizona men's hoops program, a position the 69-year-old from Mayville, N.D., is unsure when he'll be ready to vacate.

"How much longer, I don't know, but it won't be 500 more wins," Olson said.

Sophomore forward Andre Iguodala said Olson's record speaks for itself when recruits are trying to decide whether to play at Arizona.

"Definitely, guys want to win. That's their main focus in winning. When you've got a coach that's won 500 games, that's a lot of games. Guys just want to keep winning. We let the recruits know we're here to win and they just come in here and follow us," he said.

Olson, who has led the Wildcats to four NCAA Final Four appearances and guided Arizona to the 1997 National Championship, has made himself visible throughout Tucson not only as a basketball coach, but as a community leader as well.

Just last week, Olson became a spokesman for the National Beer Wholesalers Association and Arizona beer wholesalers, speaking in public service announcements to encourage responsible drinking and discourage underage drinking.

"If it can make a difference in a few cases even, for me, why, that's worthwhile," Olson said of the radio spots during a press conference last week.

Olson also participated this year in CatWalk, a campus event sponsored by the UA's greek community to raise money for cancer research. Olson's wife of 47 years, Bobbi, died on New Year's Day 2001 after a bout with ovarian cancer.

The UA athletics department honored Olson on February 26, 2000 by naming the floor in McKale Center "Lute Olson Court." The court was renamed "Lute and Bobbi Olson Court" during a memorial service shortly after Bobbi Olson's death.