Former Arizona Wildcats basketball coach, Lute Olson, in good condition after suffering a mild stroke Arizona Wildcats Basketball



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Former Arizona University basketball coach, Lute Olson, is in good condition after suffering a mild stroke over the weekend, his doctor said .

Olson, 84, was admitted Saturday at the Banner Medical Center in Tucson. David Labiner, chairman of the department of neurology at AU, said that Olson "should recover fully, but that he will likely need a rehab therapy after he leaves the hospital." 39; hospital. "

The hospital offered no other details.

A member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Olson is the most successful coach in UA basketball history. He led the Wildcats to the NCAA basketball championship in 1997, the crowning event in the history of athletics, and his teams also competed in three other Final Fours (1988, 1994, and 2001) .

During 24 seasons in Arizona between 1983 and 2007, Olson scored 589-187 and won 11 Pac-10 championships before retiring from health problems in October 2008.

In October 2007, Olson announced that he was absent indefinitely for what he called a "non-life-threatening illness" and that he missed by the end of the season.

Olson resumed training in April 2008 but retired definitively six months later. In the days following his retirement, Steven Knope, Olson's personal physician, stated that the coach had been a victim of a small smoke during the previous year, a situation that probably led to depression and change of judgment. Knope stated that this attack took place in the Olson frontal lobe, an area that controls executive functions and serves as a center of personality.

The stroke "resulted in severe depression as well as changes in judgment that, in retrospect, probably do not appear for several months," Knope said at the time.

At that time, Olson's physicians stated that he had also been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, or an abnormal heart rhythm, probably as a result of the stroke. For years, Olson has been dealing with a familiar tremor, which causes involuntary tremors and a trembling voice.

Olson remains a pillar of retirement in Tucson, traveling across the country as an ambassador for the UA Foundation, lending his name to a fantastic camp gathering his former players while appearing in a local ad.

The McKale Center Court is named after Olson and his first wife, Bobbi. The AU unveiled last April a life-size statue of the coach in front of the Jim Click Champions Hall, on the north side of the arena.

"I think it's a great tribute to the players who participated in this program because I did not make a single basket," Olson said before the ceremony.

Since retiring, Olson has also been a regular at UA home games with his wife, Kelly, until this season.

He was honored at an AU Women's Match in December and attended his first men's game this season on February 7, sitting in the seats of Tucson Burt Kinerk's lawyer, facing the UA bench while the Wildcats welcomed the first place in Washington.

Coach Olson is not only an icon of the men's basketball and college basketball program, he is also the embodiment of Arizona Athletics, the University of Arizona and the Tucson community. Our thoughts go out to Coach Olson, his family and loved ones during this time. "

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