Gimino: Partial Olson return adds to confusion
by Anthony Gimino on Nov. 28, 2007, under SportsWelcome to the Lute Olson Watch, Day 25. He’s back. Kind of. Not really. The Arizona basketball coach attended practice Monday night, his first significant interaction with the team since taking a leave of absence for personal reasons Nov. 4.
The reason for his leave is still a closely guarded secret. Perhaps we can get Robert Novak on the case.
UA held its weekly basketball news conference Tuesday, with the assembled media not knowing which Coach O would show up: Olson or interim head coach Kevin O’Neill.
Not even the school’s sports information staff was saying.
As for that stranger hanging out on the fringes? Turns out he was representing the university’s legal counsel.
Really, it just gets curiouser and curiouser.
Eventually, it was O’Neill who walked through the door and into the camera lights to answer questions about Lute and the program. He didn’t say anything to alarm the attorneys.
Lute’s privacy is intact. UA is offering no timetable for his return to games. He will be at some practices. Can’t say which ones. He will not be on the bench Wednesday night against Cal State Fullerton.
Other than that, it’s as senior center Kirk Walters said to a semicircle of reporters: “Guys, I really don’t know anything.”
Nobody really does. This is all on Olson’s schedule.
“I want Lute Olson to do whatever Lute Olson wants to do, and I’ve told him that several times,” O’Neill said. “Whatever he wants to do, that’s what I want to do.”
Olson’s time, his space, his privacy – he’s entitled to all that. His silence on this matter leads to greater speculation, but he must know that and it must not be a concern.
Since we don’t know what the personal reasons are, it’s impossible to say if coming clean would be a good course of action.
But this whole thing is bizarre. Why was his leave announced by a Phoenix public relations firm, and not the university? Who leaked info of Monday’s practice return to a UA fan site?
It doesn’t seem as if the athletic department has much of a better idea of what is going on than the rest of us.
The plan from the sports information office was just for Olson to show up Monday night for practice when no media would be around and then . . .
Well, who knows?
Curiouser and curiouser, especially the longer this goes on.
“We’re not covering up anything here,” O’Neill said. “We’re just giving a coach his space to be who he is and do what he needs to do.”
In the meantime, Arizona is 3-2, having lost its two biggest games, despite having chances to win at the end. The Wildcats fell 75-72 at home to Virginia and 76-72 in overtime to No. 4 Kansas on Sunday.
The team was told of Olson’s return to practice after returning to the Tucson airport from the Kansas game. Still, the players say they haven’t been privy to much information.
“It’s just kind of been awkward, not knowing when he was going to come back, if he was going to come back,” sophomore forward Chase Budinger said.
O’Neill ran the practice Monday night, but he said Olson was involved in more than a supervisory role.
“He made some coaching points – great ones I might add,” O’Neill said.
“He’s followed us, obviously, very closely. He knows stats. He knows all that. As you know, he is sharp. He doesn’t miss a trick. It would appear to me that he hasn’t missed any tricks.”
I’ll say this: While the situation is awkward, unsettling and possibly not being handled in the smoothest possible way, the players have been resilient and have played hard for O’Neill.
“When I grow up, I wish that I could be like many of them with how well they handle things,” O’Neill said with a laugh.
“I have great admiration for how these guys have gone about their business the entire time we’ve been practicing and playing games. They’ve been awesome. I’m convinced they’ll handle themselves very well for the rest of the season, no matter what any of us do.”
The ball is still in Lute’s court.
