Sean Miller interviewing with Arizona today.

[Henry Sugar]

Arizona without Lute and Memphis without Cal Marquette without Al = mediocrity.

making it relevant

[CAINMUTINY]

Seriously? its been, what? say two years since Lute has been there? give me a break.  Two years isn't enough time to come to a conclusion on this subject.  

[GGGG]

Memphis has been to three final fours over the course of 30+ years with three different coaches.  Arizona has not had that sustained history of success.

[mug644]

Difference is that UCLA has now proved that they can be successful without Wooden.  They've gone to Final Fours without him, they've won titles without him, they've proven to be an elite school, not just a school with an elite coach.

Arizona hasn't shown that yet, and until they do they are not an elite job, just a program that had an elite coach.  And there's a huge difference.

Sorry to sidetrack the thread, but I've always wondered about being an "elite" program. How many programs have really been elite and consistently successfully under more than one coach? Off the top of my head, I can only think of UNC, Kentucky, Kansas and UCLA. I suppose Michigan State could say so, as they've won national championships with more than one coach (which makes me wonder how many programs have won with more than one coach). But IU, Duke, UConn, and Arizona are often referred to as elite, despite the fact that their solid success happened only with one coach.

[Nukem2]

Memphis has been to three final fours over the course of 30+ years with three different coaches.  Arizona has not had that sustained history of success.

Unfortunately, without Calipari (who was hired when the CUSA was strong) Memphis will probably never reach even an Elite 8 again.  The CUSA is a HUGE drawback in Mempis' hiring process.

[GGGG]

IU won two national championships under Branch McCracken and had plenty of success prior to Bob Knight.  Duke was a NCAA tournament regular, including having a national championship game appearance, long before Coach K.

UConn I would agree with you though.

[VegasWarrior77]

making it relevant

+1
I hate the way Crean left MU but respect the fact that he brought the program back to where it is now.  Buzz seems to be off to a great start.  We will see what he does with his own players and how they pan out.

[mug644]

IU won two national championships under Branch McCracken and had plenty of success prior to Bob Knight.  Duke was a NCAA tournament regular, including having a national championship game appearance, long before Coach K.

UConn I would agree with you though.

Good point about IU (I just looked up NCAA Tournament winners and see their championships in 1940 and 1953), and I don't want to imply that success and elite status come only from winning the tournament. About Duke, I do recall the Jim Spanarkel years, but I don't remember them as consistently top-notch. My memory says that DePaul and Notre Dame were at a higher level than Duke. In any case, point  taken, and to get back to the thread, did Arizona ever have much success prior to Lute Olsen?

[4everwarriors]

When Georgetown played here in the 70's in the Milwaukee Classic their program was awful; sucked sewer water.

[GGGG]

Good point about IU (I just looked up NCAA Tournament winners and see their championships in 1940 and 1953), and I don't want to imply that success and elite status come only from winning the tournament. About Duke, I do recall the Jim Spanarkel years, but I don't remember them as consistently top-notch. My memory says that DePaul and Notre Dame were at a higher level than Duke. In any case, point  taken, and to get back to the thread, did Arizona ever have much success prior to Lute Olsen?

Outside of some mild success in the mid-70s (and thanks to bma for that information) Arizona has been awful.  In fact, I remember when Lute left Iowa for Arizona, some people thought he went nuts.

[oldwarrior81]

Arizona was in the WAC until the late 70's. 

When Lute Olson took the job they had only been in the Pac 10 about 4-5 seasons.  This was there committment to "big time".

[bma725]

Good point about IU (I just looked up NCAA Tournament winners and see their championships in 1940 and 1953), and I don't want to imply that success and elite status come only from winning the tournament. About Duke, I do recall the Jim Spanarkel years, but I don't remember them as consistently top-notch. My memory says that DePaul and Notre Dame were at a higher level than Duke. In any case, point  taken, and to get back to the thread, did Arizona ever have much success prior to Lute Olsen?

Duke had a bunch of success prior to the Spanarkel years.  They made 3 Final Fours in the 1960s including one championship game under soon to be Hall of Fame coach Vic Bubas.  They were ranked in the top 10 for most of the 1960s, they had multiple All Americans, conference championships, and multiple National Player of the Year winners.  Plus, if you go back further they could have been even better but they played in the Southern Conference which for a period did not allow post season play. So despite winning the conference and being eligible they did not go to either the NCAA or NIT.

As for Arizona, they have not done much without Lute.  Arizona has 28 NCAA appearances total.  25 of those came once Lute Olson got there.  They had no tournament wins outside Fred Snowden's Elite Eight run in 1976. 

Not only that, but it's not as if they were getting screwed out of the NCAA and then did well in the NIT.  They've only made two NIT appearances(both prior to 1952) and haven't won a game there either.

[Nukem2]

Duke had a bunch of success prior to the Spanarkel years.  They made 3 Final Fours in the 1960s including one championship game under soon to be Hall of Fame coach Vic Bubas.  They were ranked in the top 10 for most of the 1960s, they had multiple All Americans, conference championships, and multiple National Player of the Year winners.  Plus, if you go back further they could have been even better but they played in the Southern Conference which for a period did not allow post season play. So despite winning the conference and being eligible they did not go to either the NCAA or NIT.

As for Arizona, they have not done much without Lute.  Arizona has 28 NCAA appearances total.  25 of those came once Lute Olson got there.  They had no tournament wins outside Fred Snowden's Elite Eight run in 1976. 
Not only that, but it's not as if they were getting screwed out of the NCAA and then did well in the NIT.  They've only made two NIT appearances(both prior to 1952) and haven't won a game there either.

Without the successes of the Snowden years, I doubt that Lute would ever have gone to AZ.  Fred proved you could get talent to the desert.

[VegasWarrior77]

I just heard on ESPN radio that Sean Miller has changed his mind and has ACCEPTED the Arizona job - according to Yahoo Sports!  It's all about the "benjamins"!?

[Chili]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-miller040609&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[Marquette Mama]

Just when Musketeer fans thought they had dodged the bullet... It's Arizona! It's Arizona!

[reinko]

A link to their board...

http://www.musketeermadness.com/board/viewforum.php?f=1

They had threads yesterday, "Send Your Thank You's Sean Miller For Staying"

Yikes...

I can't imagine the vitriol if Crean turned down a job, committed to Marquette, then the next day flipped flopped.

[Marquette Mama]

The musketeermadness board is at max capacity...

[The Lens]

This way Miller gets his raise from Xavier. 

Or maybe not

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-miller040609&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Wow, Cal & Miller both left for schools and their schools weren't blind-sided, amazing.

Of course neither Cal or Miller have super cool, famous in-laws to go on the radio and break the news.

[GGGG]

I just heard on ESPN radio that Sean Miller has changed his mind and has ACCEPTED the Arizona job - according to Yahoo Sports!  It's all about the "benjamins"!?

Seven years...$18 million.

Wow.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Or maybe not

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-miller040609&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Wow, Cal & Miller both left for schools and their schools weren't blind-sided, amazing.

Of course neither Cal or Miller have super cool, famous in-laws to go on the radio and break the news.

The Lens, was New Orleans "blind sided" by their last coach?  Don't forget to factor in that the last coach left in JULY (not April), a mere 6 weeks before school started.