The Lutester's final words.

Thought some of you might enjoy hearing from Lute Olson's comments at a press conference he held on Monday, March 19th. The Lutester is getting long in the tooth but I think you will hear more of the 'Cats next year. They certainly have a strong nucleus coming back and a couple of great kids coming in. (Jaryd Bayless (PG) and Jamelle Horn (SF) ) They are both rated in the top 5 at their positions in the country. If we don't lose Chase and Marcus Willimas to the NBA (I believe Williams will go) we will be right in the middle the fray next year.

Enjoy.
Dad

On Monday Lute Olson met with the press to re-cap the season and take a look ahead. Here are some his quotes.

Opening Statement

“In looking back at the season, there were certainly some ups and downs. The main thing is that we kept the streak of 20-win seasons alive (20, longest in the nation) and kept the streak of 23 consecutive NCAA (Tournament) appearances (also longest in the nation). We played well enough to win 20 games and we played poorly enough to lose (11) games. It was disappointing in a lot of ways, but I think there are a lot schools that would probably be excited to finish in a tie for third place in what’s proving to be one of the toughest conferences in the country.

“A lot of people are happy to get in the NCAA Tournament, so it was nice to have had that opportunity. In terms of looking back at that game, there were a lot of opportunities when we got the score down to two and four points, but did not have the capability, as we had in our final five road games in the Pac-10, to finish the game off. But I think it was pretty obvious in watching that (Purdue) was a pretty good basketball team.

“I had an opportunity to watch the Pac-10 teams and I thought the teams played really well. As I said before the tournament, I thought the way our officials worked the games during the season was beneficial to our teams playing the in the NCAA (Tournament) because the games were called very similarly, very physical, with the way they are called in the NCAA Tournament.
“Beyond that, Ivan (Radenovic) has had an invita to play in the (National Association of Basketball Coaches) East-West (All-Star) Game, which will be held Friday evening (March 30) at 7:30 (EDT) in Atlanta during the Final Four. He’s excited about having that opportunity.

“Also, Chase (Budinger) has been invited to try out for the U.S. Under-19 Team that will have tryouts in July and then the team that will be selected will play in the Global Games in Dallas and go on and play in Serbia. He’ll be given an opportunity to make that team. I think it would be a great experience for him.

“Mohamed (Tangara) has had an invitation to play with the Mali national team. We just sent our acceptance of that back this morning. He’ll go back there sometime in the latter part of July and the competition will be in August.

“Otherwise, the rest of the guys will be attending summer school here. There will be some that we’ll want to remain here for the entire summer. One of those is Kirk Walters. Another is Jordan Hill because we need to continue to work on their strength, and hopefully, by that time Kirk will be cleared to work out the way we want him to work out.”

When will you find out about his (Walters’) redshirt situation?

“It will be submitted now that the season is over. I think (a decision can be expected) sometime in June. It’s just a severe case of mono. Hopefully, by the time we get to the middle of May he would be ready to workout without problems.”

You’ve had long seasons before, but this season started in mid-August. Was it a long season for you?

“Oh yes. We had 10 practices before we went to Vancouver (Sept. 1-4). When we came back, they had individual workouts and weights until the start of practice (Oct. 13). Basketball to begin with is very long and that made it even longer.

What about psychologically?

“The whole thing is that this has been a great group of young people to work with. It hasn’t been a case of problems in practice or anything else. They have been a great group of guys…great chemistry. I’d like for it to be that way every year. As I look at it with the experience that we got with the freshmen. It doesn’t make any difference whether you are talking about our freshmen or anyone else’s, that was pretty obvious with Texas (on March 18 vs. USC). As great of a player as (Kevin) Durant is, as good as (Greg) Oden is, they had some of the same things that we had. The good thing is that freshmen become sophomores and they know a whole lot more about what is expected and what they have to do in the offseason.

“This group was a great group to work with. They’ve done a really good job in the classroom. They’ve been great in the community. There hasn’t been anything we’ve asked them to do that they haven’t done. I think they’ve done a great job of representing this program.

“Are they disappointed? Yes, they are disappointed. There are 16 teams left and everyone else is disappointed.

Would you do anything differently?

“We met as a staff this morning. As far as planning and everything else, there isn’t anything we’d change. I just finished talking with Ivan and he feels that from a player’s perspective he wants to know what they could have done to not have this happen. I said, ‘well, that’s the way the coaches are feeling.’ He said there wasn’t anything the staff could have done that they didn’t do.

“We’re just evaluating how we went about it and what we need to do differently. The biggest thing is that we need to be stronger and physically more aggressive. That’s not anything that we’re going to approach any differently. The way this league is getting now, you have to play physically.

“We’re going to continue to work on the physical part of it, but also the mental part, too. They have to be pushed to the nth degree in everything they do with weights in the workouts now and in the fall. There will be a lot more emphasis on developing the one-on-one offensive and defensive skills and less time on shooting. With the big guys, you still have to work on footwork, but we’ll make better use of the blocking dummies to get them more accustomed to the physical nature of the game.

“You can see from watching the games in the playoffs, it continues. It doesn’t matter who you watch, the games are all physical. That’s the way they are being called. It’s not a game of finesse really any more, it’s a game of strength. Much more physical than it’s ever been…a lot more. If you watched the games through the first two rounds, it’s been the most physical I’ve seen in my 34 years of coaching or 28 of the last 29 years that I’ve had teams in the playoffs.”

Talk about Jawann McClellan’s comments about taking on a leadership role:

”The thing that I like about Jawann is that he is a tough-minded kid and he is tough physically. I think he can add a lot to this team next year just by his attitude toward the game. He’ll do a good job with his leadership. It’s going to be a case, like this year when he was able, he was always tough and hard-nosed. I had the players go through an evaluation, and the most aggressive was Jawann by a long ways in terms of the voting of his teammates. And that’s what we need. He’s physical, very aggressive and he’s accustomed to winning. “The biggest thing now with him is the challenge of making sure he continues working on keeping that weight down in the 205 area and doing the rehab things away from school that he needs to do. That’s just something we have to count on from him. He’s already planned for being in a situation this summer where he can work out against good people, physical players. We need Jawann’s toughness and we need for to inspire others to be tough just like he is.”

Can you talk about Mustafa Shakur and his impact on the program?

“Mustafa played so well early in the year and then tailed off. In the first half of the season, he played as well as any point guard in the country. You know, the (NBA) scouts see him all year long, so I’m sure it’s going to be a case of where the determining factor in terms of where he goes will be in the individual workouts much more so than playing in Chicago. “He’s been the point guard on four NCAA Tournament teams. One year to the Elite Eight, one year to the second round where he played really well in both games. As I’ve said many times, I’ve never had anybody work harder. That doesn’t just include the practices, because I know what he has done in terms of working on his shooting. When he first came in his shot was a tremendous problem, and he’s worked hard at straightening that out. “I think this year was a year where they couldn’t back off him like they had in the past. He‘s a four-year starter at the point for us. That’s not an easy thing to do.”

Can you speak to the futures of Nic Wise and Fendi Onobun?

“I told Nic a few weeks ago, ‘I bet he feels like Jason Terry felt as a freshman.’ Being a freshman is not easy. It’s a huge adjustment in every way that it can be. I though he made great progress during the year. He’s a totally different player than when he first started.

“I just talked with Fendi. He was talking about the first week of practice his freshman year where he thought that we were talking a different language, and just in terms of learning the game, how much he’s progress that he’s made. I told Fendi it’s all there physically. He just needs to be much more intense on every ball possession. He has a great body, tremendous hands and great lift. He’s worked hard on his shooting. A year ago, he couldn’t even drop it right-handed. Now you can’t play him just left or he’ll go right on you. So many of those things you haven’t had the opportunity to see in game situations, but we see everyday in practice and so does he.

“If he couldn’t play physically, I’d tell him. He just needs to be more intense. He has to sprint the court both ways. He has to be on the boards every time the ball is up in the air. We had a good talk. The biggest thing is getting them into a position where he can operate in either spot (small forward vs. power forward). When I look at a guy to become a three-man, like Richard Jefferson, who played inside all the time in high school, I was never worried about it. Richard had the physical ability and quickness to play on the outside. He just needed to learn the ball-handling skills and all that. Fendi is the same way. He has the quickness to defend people on the perimeter. He needs to intensify what he is doing out there in terms of taking on a challenge. He has as quick a set of feet as Richard has, and Richard has done pretty well with that. Sean Elliott was an inside player playing in the middle of a 2-3 zone when he came here. So we’ve seen that with a lot of guys. Fendi could play either position.

“I talked with him about the (Carl) Landry kid from Purdue. What makes Landry so good? It’s the intensity with which he plays the game.”

What can we expect to see from Chase Budinger next year?

“Chase has been quoted as saying that he wants to be the best college player in the country next year. I think that’s a realistic possibility. When I talked to him the other day when we got back about the letter we were holding regarding the USA Basketball Under 19 team tryouts, one of the first questions he asked me was whether he would be able to work on his strength while he was doing this. It’s important for all 19-year-old to understand how important physical development is. From the beginning of the year until now with Chase, there has been a lot of progress. As much as he would have liked? No, but I don’t think he realized coming in what the difference was going to be. He became much more aggressive as the year went on. But there were times when he had one really good game and not a very good game or a great first half and not a great second half. Against Purdue, he had no rebounds in the first half and six in the second. I don’t think he suddenly developed rebounding skills at halftime. If you want to be the best player in the country, there is no time to coast.”

The injuries this year really depleted you…

“Yes. Jordan (Hill) really should have been a back-up to Kirk. Is he better right now than he would have been? Yes. Jawann’s situation the last two years has hurt us, but there is nothing you can do about it. You can look at it that it gave Chase a whole lot more minutes this year than he might otherwise have had. It would have affected Chase or Jordan.”

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

I just got through doing our taxes for 2006. For the first time since I can remember doing taxes, we are having to send more money to the IRS than was withheld. This is very disturbing to me and your mother. It rather torques my jaws to tell you the truth.

What got us this year is we had to take a withdrawal from my 401k in order to pay for the basement. So not only do they withhold from that withdrawal at a 20% rate, the IRS then hits you with a 10% additional penalty when you do your taxes. What a ripoff!!!

I sure wish that they would hold the elections around the 3rd week in April. The Pols are too smart for that though. They know that they would be thrown out of office every election. It is absolutely ridiculous that the Feds take so much of our money. I'm not speaking as a Republican or a Democrat here. I work hard for the money we get and it makes me mad to see so much of it wasted. And for you Matt, I'm not thinking the defense of this country is a waste. No, we have plenty of income from our tax code to cover the essential things that the Federal governement should be doing. Defense, foreign policy, welfare, social security, etc. What we have is too much waste and entitlements. Why do we have a Federally created Dept of Education? Why do we have OSHA? Why do we have the FHA? The EPA? Etc, etc. Better left to the states, much of this. We are out of control.

I really do pity you guys and your kids. By the time they are grown up and paying taxes they will get nothing of what they earn.

Sorry to rant, but it is troublesome to me every year when I see all the waste and I could better use my money myself than giving it to the Feds. I don't want anything from them. Just let me do for myself and I will be fine. If that were to happen the whole thing would collapse as the top 10% of wage earners now pay 67% of the federal tax bill. Pathetic!!

I'd like to tell the Feds to go pound sand.....but I don't want to go to jail.

Love you.

Destitute in Denver
Dad