Let me first say it didn’t have to be like this. Never. Ever.

And I say that because for 20-something years – as far as I know – former Arizona coach Lute Olson was one of the hardest-working, had-a-presence-about-him coaches I’ve known in two decades of covering college basketball. He was first at a recruiting venue and last to leave. It’s been well-documented. The last thing he needed was for players to be brought to him.

But that was the case with the Cactus Classic behind the ever-present Jim Storey, a shrewd businessman and networker. A guy doesn’t make $197,000 from camps because he’s a dummy.

Let me also make a caveat here: I’ve covered Olson for nearly two decades and had/have a relationship with him. Two books on the program and hundreds, if not thousands, of stories through the years how could one not? I think a lot of him. Grew close to his late wife, Bobbi. He and I have had a disagreement or two, but we’ve always been able to move on from them. I think he was an unbelievable coach. Touch cookie? Sure. Ego? He was a Hall of Famer, of course. But I like the guy. And he returned calls – most of the time.

As for Storey, I’ve spoken maybe two minutes – total – to him through the years. Those two minutes were during an interview for the 2006 or 2007 Cactus Classic. I don’t really remember. I have no relationship with Storey.

Olson and Storey became close because Storey had his website – Goazcats.com – and had, in Olson’s mind, access to potential recruits. Who Olson got from the connection is still up for debate. Name a quality player from it who wasn’t already coming here. … Give up? NO ONE!

Let me say now that I don’t get old-school coaches – new-school either because it’s still happening around the country – in the amount of weight they put on recruiting websites. Who cares where a guy ranks? Should I give you some former UA player’s names that ranked high and turned out to be far less impressive than their number indicated? It would be the second or third time that would happen so I won’t.

So, I’ll say many coaches did very well – Lute included – way before the websites starting popping up. In fact, that’s how Lute became, in part, who he became – he could recruit. And if he didn’t get the star recruit, he could coach the other guys up.

But the timing of it all isn’t a coincidence either. The years in question are 2006 to 2008 when Lute was a season removed from what I’ve called the end of the Olson era – the Illinois debacle in 2005 – and in the middle of a troubled, sometimes public marriage – later divorce – that he tried so hard to make work.

It was clear Arizona needed players. And quality players at that. So, why not have recruits come in for a tournament to McKale Center and not have to go out on the road? Sounded like a good idea. The problem was that it was done all wrong, almost too obvious. It’s one of the reasons why I detest recruiting. It’s too corrupt. There’s too many ways it can go wrong.

In the case of Arizona and the Cactus Classic it went way too wrong and now Olson’s legacy has taken another shot.

He’s a Hall of Fame coach, but this doesn’t help a legacy.

He trusted Storey too much. No question, Goazcats.com had great information with great insiders in the program. The list isn’t long on who they were.

But I found out how close Goazcats was when Olson didn’t make the trip to Chicago, the day before it was announced Christine and he were getting a divorce. The first source called – besides Jeff Goodman of Foxsports.com because he was close to recruits – was Goazcats so they could inform recruits that everything was going to be OK.

The future, despite Olson not being around for the 2007-08 season, was still bright. No worries.

Four months later, the problems started with the letter with Olson’s electronic signature and former UA assistants Russ Pennell and Mike Dunlap (not coaches yet, however) in the stands watching games in the Classic.

Then UA self reports violations. Storey, who was everywhere when it came to games and recruiting, was no longer around. I don’t know if I’ve seen him in more than two years. It was obvious that UA, as part of its investigation, had to tell Storey to stay away. How does a guy go from always being around to never being around?

Now this – Arizona hit with NCAA problems. Not like it’s a shock. We’ve all been waiting for the NCAA to come down with its decision. UA has lost more than it had hoped – a scholarship in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons and more recruiting days. UA has vacated 19 victories because of ineligible players (that was part of the big news to me) from the 2007-08 season. And it must rebuild its reputation after being one of the best and what was one of the cleanest programs around. Or at least was thought to be.

It never had to come to this. And over a bunch of potential recruits that amounted to, well, you fill in the blank.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.