The University of Arizona-s men-s basketball team is known as one of the premier basketball programs in all of college basketball, but this wasn-t always the case. It took the hiring of Robert Luther “Lute’ Olson to turn this struggling program into the powerhouse that it is today.

Before coaching at Arizona, Lute Olson was a highly successful coach at the University of Iowa. As the head coach of Iowa, Olson-s team made the Final Four in 1980 and in his last year coaching the Hawkeyes his team made it to the Sweet 16. Olson left the University of Iowa after the 1983 season to become the coach of the Arizona Wildcats which at the time was one of the worse basketball programs in the country.

It didn-t take Coach Olson long before he turned the Wildcats into winners. Three years after his arrival Arizona won the Pac 10 conference title, and two years after that Arizona made its first Final Four appearance. Arizona made the NCAA Tournament 23 straight times during Olson-s 25 years as head coach. During Olson-s career they also won eleven Pac 10 championships, made four Final Four appearances and won the National Championship once, in 1997.

Olson left the University of Arizona with a legacy that is almost unmatched in college basketball. Olson was named his conferences coach of the year seven times. He also led Arizona to 20 straight seasons with at least 20 wins, and for his career he averaged nearly 25 wins a season. Olson has the most wins in Pac 10 history and is second in win percentage trailing only John Wooden

The University of Arizona is now amongst the elite basketball programs in the country. It consistently is in competition for not only conference championships, but national championships as well. Thanks to Coach Lute Olson, Arizona is on the college basketball map to stay.