The planned transition from one college basketball coach to the next isn't that difficult. Washington State got it done with Dick Bennett giving way to his son, Tony. Purdue went from Gene Keady to Matt Painter. Look at Drake, for God's sake. That program's transition from Tom Davis to Keno Davis has produced the best season in Drake history.
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| According to sources, Kevin O'Neill was pushing people away from Arizona. (Getty Images) |
Unless you're Arizona. At which point it becomes as indecipherable as a double helix.
Arizona hasn't just screwed up its transition from the Lute Olson Era to whatever era comes next. Arizona has taken sticks of dynamite and plugged them into every orifice of Olson's leaking program.
And interim coach Kevin O'Neill is the fuse.
O'Neill was a bad idea from Day 1. He's stubborn and caustic, and he doesn't work well with others. Asking him to work not just with Lute Olson, but under him, was a ludicrous proposition. O'Neill is obsessed and pushy. Olson is stately and clueless. For years Olson has been at the mercy of his players -- malcontents like Chris Rodgers, Hassan Adams, Salim Stoudamire and Marcus Williams -- not because he's that easy-going, but because he's that out of it. He's the Bobby Bowden of college football, a figurehead. He needs a Mark Richt or a Jimbo Fisher.
Come to think of it, Olson did have someone like that: 27-year assistant Jim Rosborough. But Olson forced him out in April to bring in O'Neill, who must have played nice during his first go-around on Olson's staff from 1986-89. But a lot has changed in the past two decades. O'Neill has grown into a big-time head coach of his own, wearing out opponents at Marquette, Tennessee and Northwestern but wearing out his own people, too. Sherman at his Civil War worst didn't burn as many bridges as O'Neill.
O'Neill burned his way right through college basketball, jumping to the NBA in 2000, when he began burning through the Eastern Conference. He was an assistant with the Knicks, Pistons and Pacers -- and the NBA being infested by idiots, he was even a head coach at Toronto for one season. In all, he was with four NBA teams in five years. This came after he bounced among three colleges in a five-year span. Kevin O'Neill might be brilliant with X's and O's, but he's lousy with people.
Which brings us to Arizona's current predicament. The O'Neill Factor had become so unbearable that Olson or the school -- whoever decided to do this -- announced this week that O'Neill's current run as head coach would end at the end of this season. Olson is coming back, and plans to coach through 2011.
Whether Olson coaches for one, two or 10 more seasons isn't the point. O'Neill cannot be in charge any longer -- that's the point. Sources close to the Arizona program, as well as to the national recruiting scene, say multiple recruits were going to reconsider their decision to attend Arizona if O'Neill were still in charge. Additionally, O'Neill's return as head coach was going to be a factor in the "go" column for two underclassmen weighing their stay-or-go NBA options: Jerryd Bayless and Chase Budinger.
In some ways, O'Neill is better than ever. Where he once needed a few years to wear out his welcome, at Arizona he has needed only a few months.
But for Arizona, it's not as simple as a press release announcing Olson's return. O'Neill isn't just the interim coach -- he's also the next coach. Arizona's long-term commitment to O'Neill in December was baffling and unnecessary. Arizona wasn't an overnight success that had to move quickly to grab a quality successor. This is an elite program, and the list of elite applicants would have been long. And here's the weirdest thing: Had Olson resigned at the end of last season, O'Neill as an outsider wouldn't have been a serious candidate. No way, no how.
But O'Neill's here now, and his exit strategy is murky. Make no mistake -- an exit strategy would seem to be in order. Coaches talk, including coaches on the Arizona staff, and the chatter in coaching circles was that O'Neill and Olson had become barely compatible before Olson's departure, when he was the clear king. Now, though, O'Neill is the prince. So what comes next? Perhaps Arizona is hoping that Olson's unexpected return will chafe O'Neill to the point that he leaves. Maybe Olson is coming back just long enough to scare O'Neill off, at which point Olson will retire for good and allow his program to conduct a thorough search for a replacement.
There's no way to know, and there's no one to trust. Already Olson and Arizona look like liars, considering Olson's initial leave of absence was announced as "not a health scare," while in his returning proclamation he acknowledged having had to deal with a "medical condition."
Whatever chased him away, it's obvious what is bringing Olson back: His beloved program, which he had nurtured and grown for 25 years, had fallen into calloused hands. Lute Olson is back to yank some weeds, but it won't be easy.
One weed thinks he's Arizona's next coach.
