Lute to step down?

[Renz]

I heard on ESPN Radio that Dick Vitale is reporting that Lute is stepping down as coach and Dunlap will take over as the interim coach. What a saga this has been!

 

[Mulli]

Lute Favre.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Lute Favre.

At least Lute's was forced by health issues not drama queen issues.

 

[Mulli]

At least Lute's was forced by health issues not drama queen issues.

Oh yeah, I forgot it wasn't for family issues.

 

[Lefty]

Thank you Lute. You built this program to elite staus.

Dunlap will coach this year. This will probably be is audition for the job. Rumor has always been Calipari would love to come to the UofA. It will be interesting to see who will replace Lute.

 

[Russ Smith]

I just saw this too. Apparently Lute missed practice yesterday with an illness, it was reported in the Arizona Star Net and the reporter said that Dunlap had been running much of the drills in recent days, so it may be Lute's health is the problem.

I wish him well he built a hell of a program up and I hope Dunlap keeps it going the Pac 10 needs rivalries like that it helps all the teams.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

This year will be Dunlap's tryout and he's got more than enough talent to get to March so we will see. There are people close to the program supposedly pushing Calipari but it's going to cost some money which is why the timing isn't all that bad, it gives Livengood several months to raise the funds to get a proven big-name guy.

 

[bratwurst]

Total speculation....I wonder if he went to have the laryngitis checked out and found something much worse?

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Oh yeah, I forgot it wasn't for family issues.

LOA was family issues, this is health issues.

 

[Mulli]

LOA was family issues, this is health issues.

I always thought Lute had issues.


Only kidding. I am really really trying to overcome the ASU/UA rivalry thing, and like both schools.

Bear (down) with me.

 

[General Chaos]

Sad news. Thanks Lute for all you've done for our program.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I wish he would've gotten to 800 and made another Tourney run before retiring (which I always said would happen in March 2009) which would've happened with this team but onwards and upwards. He was a great coach, the first to win a major championship in this state's sports history, and was a cog in building the University's athletic department during it's infancy in the Pac-10.

Thanks for everything Lute. March won't be the same without you.

 

[Renz]

BTW, the university is denying any knowledge of Lute retiring. Calls to Lute and Livengood haven't been returned.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

He's done.

Bring down Calipari!

 

[Arizona's Finest]

WTF?

All I can do is laugh. I hate to say it but all this garbage has stained the guys legacy to be sure.

What a joke.

And now we are leaving the future of the program in the hands of Livengood. Awesome.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Big boosters will make this decision for JL just like they made the decision not to fire Lute last April in favor of Kevin O'Neill which Livengood pushed for. Only about half of our basketball coach's paycheck will come from the athletic department so they're somewhat handcuffed in the situation.

The restless natives with the cash and clout want Calipari, whether they can get it done remains to be seen but having Pastner the mole in place doesn't hurt. Not to mention the fact that Calipari wants a power conference gig. Remember he had verbally accepted the NC State gig (an inferior job to AZ) after they let Sendek go until their AD lowballed him on asst. coaches' salaries.

Cal won't be at Memphis for too much longer, he loses a lot of talent this year and is itching for greener pastures. Arizona just has to close.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Hell of a career for Lute, he is U of A basketball. Will be interesting to see where it goes from here. Why would Calipari leave a program he has built up and just went to a title game with to go to U of A? How big a name coach will U of A be able to pick up?

 

[Arizona's Finest]

Hell of a career for Lute, he is U of A basketball. Will be interesting to see where it goes from here. Why would Calipari leave a program he has built up and just went to a title game with to go to U of A? How big a name coach will U of A be able to pick up?

Thats a pretty silly question. Despite your delusions UA is a top 8 program in college basketball in terms of cache and tradition.

That's like asking why a college football coach would go to a USC, Oklahoma, Alabama, and so on. Keep in mind those were losing programs not too long ago. When you can rely on tradition and that gets you recruits. Recruits help you win. Not to mention the amount of money that is pored into that program. It's essentially the schools identity.

Make sense?

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

UA is one of the top 5 revenue-generating hoops programs in the country, it can definitely afford someone legit. And yes, if Calipari would go to NC State he'd go to Arizona if of course the money was right. And Memphis is losing a lot after this coming season so the timing would be right and most coaches do make the jump from mid-major conferences when given the right oppurtunity.

Look at well Arizona has recruited this offseason with Lute's LOA, the O'Neill fallout, brand new assistants, and all the other crap hanging around the porgram. A proven guy like Calipari would be licking his chops at getting this job.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

This year will be Dunlap's tryout and he's got more than enough talent to get to March so we will see. There are people close to the program supposedly pushing Calipari but it's going to cost some money which is why the timing isn't all that bad, it gives Livengood several months to raise the funds to get a proven big-name guy.

Can you imagine if Livengood brings in Calipari to replace Lute Olson and the football team gets to a bowl game? Talk about going from goat to hero.

 

[Russ Smith]

Big boosters will make this decision for JL just like they made the decision not to fire Lute last April in favor of Kevin O'Neill which Livengood pushed for. Only about half of our basketball coach's paycheck will come from the athletic department so they're somewhat handcuffed in the situation.

The restless natives with the cash and clout want Calipari, whether they can get it done remains to be seen but having Pastner the mole in place doesn't hurt. Not to mention the fact that Calipari wants a power conference gig. Remember he had verbally accepted the NC State gig (an inferior job to AZ) after they let Sendek go until their AD lowballed him on asst. coaches' salaries.

Cal won't be at Memphis for too much longer, he loses a lot of talent this year and is itching for greener pastures. Arizona just has to close.

Depends Memphis is on the verge of having a monster recruiting class and Calipari has some freedoms at Memphis he wouldn't have at UA the administration there is a bit more lenient.

Dave Telep is reporting that Gaddy already texted him that this will impact his commitment to UA, and that moser and Solomon Hill might both renege on their verbals now because Lute promised the entire recruiting class he'd be the coach when they arrived. Gaddy apparently was personally promised that Lute would help him get to the NBA.

So if you're Calipari you have to weigh the short term vs the long term, long term UA might be the better job, but short term you're leaving a great team with a great recruiting class to go to a struggling team where you might have to re-recruit your top 3 kids from the 09 class.

 

[DWKB]

Depends Memphis is on the verge of having a monster recruiting class and Calipari has some freedoms at Memphis he wouldn't have at UA the administration there is a bit more lenient.

Dave Telep is reporting that Gaddy already texted him that this will impact his commitment to UA, and that moser and Solomon Hill might both renege on their verbals now because Lute promised the entire recruiting class he'd be the coach when they arrived. Gaddy apparently was personally promised that Lute would help him get to the NBA.

So if you're Calipari you have to weigh the short term vs the long term, long term UA might be the better job, but short term you're leaving a great team with a great recruiting class to go to a struggling team where you might have to re-recruit your top 3 kids from the 09 class.

I agree, it seems right now Cal has Memphis in the hunt for every 5 star recruit there is. The freedom of Memphis is something I don't know if UofA can offer him right now. UofA is definitely at a down turn in the program and is honestly untested outside of Lute. (I bet I could name 8 programs over UofA. ) They do have a lot of money, though. Wonder how much of a check they'll have to write.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Depends Memphis is on the verge of having a monster recruiting class and Calipari has some freedoms at Memphis he wouldn't have at UA the administration there is a bit more lenient.

Our football coach is a Stoops and our AD used to employ Kelvin Sampson and wouldv'e hired him had Lute retired in 2001 after Bobbi died. We're not as strict as some think we might be.

Dave Telep is reporting that Gaddy already texted him that this will impact his commitment to UA, and that moser and Solomon Hill might both renege on their verbals now because Lute promised the entire recruiting class he'd be the coach when they arrived. Gaddy apparently was personally promised that Lute would help him get to the NBA.

Obviously this was going to have an impact, I expect maybe one of the three to hang around. Nice to know holier than thou UCLA kept in touch with Gaddy despite his re-commitment to 'Zona.

So if you're Calipari you have to weigh the short term vs the long term, long term UA might be the better job, but short term you're leaving a great team with a great recruiting class to go to a struggling team where you might have to re-recruit your top 3 kids from the 09 class.

If Cal is the guy he'll lock down a solid class in the spring no matter what.

 

[DWKB]

If Cal is the guy he'll lock down a solid class in the spring no matter what.

I personally think it would do UofA some good to get some KU blood pumped into them.


I also gotta think the more talk of Cal to Tucson in the news the better for us to grab Henry. I wish you good luck!

 

[Russ Smith]

Our football coach is a Stoops and our AD used to employ Kelvin Sampson and wouldv'e hired him had Lute retired in 2001 after Bobbi died. We're not as strict as some think we might be.


Obviously this was going to have an impact, I expect maybe one of the three to hang around. Nice to know holier than thou UCLA kept in touch with Gaddy despite his re-commitment to 'Zona.


If Cal is the guy he'll lock down a solid class in the spring no matter what.

Well if we're going off internet reports that Gaddy kept in touch with UCLA, the same people say Stover is still talking to Arizona. I have no idea if Gaddy has kept in touch with UCLA I do know the rumor came out a couple of weeks ago and UCLA recruiting guys immediately said there's nothing to it, he's going to UA unless something unexpected comes up. That is of course what happened today with Lute apparently. I'm not in favor of recruiting kids who are verbally committed but if the kid committed under one condition and that condition changes, people are going to recruit him.


I can't make any judgements here because I don't know the whole story. If Lute is sick I don't blame him one bit for stepping down and I wish him the best. If Lute just changed his mind again, I'd feel differently, he promised recruits he'd be there, promised Chase he'd be there, if he just decided his heart wasn't in it anymore I'd feel he let down a lot of kids by doing so.

I think UA will absolutely get a good coach in to replace him, I just meant I'm not sure it's going to be Calipari. I don't think UA would give him that much freedom, particularly after what happened with Brandon Jennings.