Lute Olson Retires as Wildcat's Men's Basketball Coach

By Ray Stern It seems everybody thinks Lute Olson is retiring except for University of Arizona officials. Rumors began swirling early in the day after ESPN analyst Dick Vitale reported that a source told him Olson was leaving and that associate coach Mike Dunlap would take his place in the...

By Ray Stern

October 23, 2008

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By Ray Stern

It seems everybody thinks Lute Olson is retiring except for University of Arizona officials.

Rumors began swirling early in the day after ESPN analyst Dick Vitale reported that a source told him Olson was leaving and that associate coach Mike Dunlap would take his place in the interim. The Arizona Republic, Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily Star soon followed with their own stories quoting the families of recruits who say they were also told that Olson is history. Fox News just reported that their own source confirmed the rumor, and that associate coach Mike Dunlap will be the interim coach.

But officials at U of A still aren't talking about it. "Nothing has changed," Richard Paige, U of A sports spokesman told the Tucson Citizen. "Lute is still our coach."

The legendary basketball coach had a 589-188 record at UA over the 24 seasons he worked in Tucson.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.