NCAA basketball: Ranking the 25 best college basketball coaches ever

No. 11 Lute Olsen

Arizona hasn’t always been a basketball powerhouse, and before Lute Olsen came along, they were sometimes an afterthought in the world of college basketball.

Robert Luther “Lute” Olsen changed he stigma around Arizona basketball, which had previously been a middling program, reaching the NCAA Tournament fairly often, and even sometimes going deep into the tournament. However, they never had a taste of the highest type of victory and were on a steep downhill slope before Olsen came along.

In the five years that they had been in the PAC-10/12 Conference before his arrival, the Wildcats had an unimpressive record of 54-82 overall. In just two years, he had them back in the NCAA Tournament, and in five years he hailed their return to national prominence, with a Final Four appearance.

In his 25-year career with the Wildcats, he was a seven-time PAC-10 Coach of the Year, and made 5 Final Four appearances total, winning the 1997 NCAA Championship, defeating three #1 seeds in just that tournament.

Olsen developed little-regarded high school prospects during his time at ‘Zona and turned them into talents like Steve Kerr, Mike Bibby, Jason Terry and Gilbert Arenas. When he had stars, they turned into the likes of Sean Elliott, Luke Walton, Damon Stoudamire and Andre Iguodala, just to name a few.

Olsen leaves behind an incredibly impressive record, and turned around the fate of an entire program, turning them into a force to be reckoned with to this day, despite his departure back in 2007.