The Rebirth Of Wildcat Basketball Begins

Ladies and gentlemen, the Silver Fox is back in the desert – and he’s not messing around.

Lute Olson held a press conference on Tuesday, addressing reporters for the first time since announcing he would be making his triumphant return to the UofA sidelines next season.

And while he skirted around many of the questions as to what exactly caused his temporary absence, there was one issue Lute had no problem speaking candidly about – Kevin O’Neill, who held down the fort (or at least tried to) in Lute’s absence.

Prior to the press conference, it was revealed the O’Neill (who earlier this year had been dubbed Lute’s eventual successor) would not be with the team next year.

Here’s what Lute had to say about letting O’Neill run the team (into the ground) and the players that were unexpectedly stuck with him for the season…

"I apologize for what they had to go through this year in terms of the change," Olson said. "They came here to play a wide-open game, and they didn't. That's no one's fault, because that's not coach O'Neill's belief on the offensive end. It was his team once I left. But I said we're going to play Arizona basketball and we're going to have fun doing it."

In other words, Coach O’Neill, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Welcome back Lute!