NOT SO COOL HAND LUTE

It was a runaway blowout and then the not so cool hand Lute, pulled the plug on the high flying act of his charges.


Leading by 15, with just four minutes remaining, it was going to be an upset of the nation's #1 team and the #1 seed, by Lute Olson's Arizona Wildcats.


Similar to the unbearable to watch, prevent defense in football, Arizona was ordered into the slow down, prevent offense. It appeared that Illinois had no answer for the surging Wildcats and their dominating inside game down the stretch. Arizona had outscored the Illini in the paint by a count of 34 -13, when Lute said, "Stop!"

The next day sportswriters wrote that the Wildcats choked down the stretch. Broadcasters broadcasted that the Wildcats choked down the stretch.

They should all be taken to task, because most of them witnessed the reins being pulled in by the head coach and not the act of a team that was choking.


Coaches lay in bed at night and dream of having their team come down the stretch of a game in complete command and in that much sought after -- zone.


This Arizona team was in such a position and in a zone like only West Virginia's early first half performance against Louisville could duplicate.

After stuffing yet another Illinois attempt at one end of the court, sitting on a 15-point lead and bringing the ball up court to continue their inside dominance and push their lead to a seemingly insurmountable 17 big points, off the bench leaps Olson with his hands raised in front of his chest, commanding and demanding his troops to STOP, slow it down and use the clock.


He may as well have pulled all those players off the court and inserted a completely fresh five. At that moment in time, Olson awoke himself from his own dream and the nightmare began. The players didn't choke, the not so cool handed Lute choked.


The coach went brain dead and all of a sudden decided to play not to lose, rather than playing to win, for those last four minutes, which must have seemed like four hours to the players, who looked dazed and confused for each and every one of those remaining 240 seconds.


Arizona fans around the country were screaming for Lute to let the kids play and get back to the attack offense that ran that Illini defense into the hardwood for the first 16 minutes of the second half.


It wasn't going to happen. Lute was steadfast in his, 'run the clock down', philosophy. Fortunately for Olson, there wasn't 10 more seconds on the clock. If there had been additional time, Arizona would have been defeated in regulation. As it was, it seemed that dear old coach had it planned out perfectly --- Hold the ball for every possible moment, force up a last second shot as the time clock expired and if all goes well, they shouldn't be able to outscore us by anymore than 15 points down the stretch. The coach was right on target. Illinois didn't outscore his team by more than 15, they outscored them by exactly 15 and on to OT we went.


Never was that old axiom, "Live by the sword, die by the sword', more self evident than in the final 13 seconds of that OT period.


Finding his team down by six, with only a couple of minutes remaining in the first OT period and maybe in their college season, Lute let his men loose and they cut that lead to ONE point with only :13 seconds separating Arizona from a trip to the Final Four. After a time-out that should never have been called, Olson sent his players back on the court and reverted to his idiotic, final four minute philosophy -- Run the clock down and get off a late shot.


Un-freaking-believable!! It didn't work for the final four minutes of regulation, what in the world made him believe it would work at this point of the game, with his entire season on the line?


With :0:08 of a second on that time bomb of a clock, the Arizona player was forced to throw up a desperation brick from beyond the arc and the fighting Illini found themselves packing for St Louis and a spot in the Final Four, despite the fact that it was more Lute Olson than their own fighting that had them realizing their dream.


On the other end of the court, Coach Olson was in a press conference making the following statement, "We had our chances." Ya think so, Lute? Amazing!!


Some comebacks are monumental and others are agonizing, in the time they consume. This Illinois comeback was neither. This comeback was simply Lute Olson awakening from that dream and presenting Illinois with a multimillion dollar gift. Arizona fans must be thinking, what if? What if their coach would have remained asleep for just those last four minutes of regulation.


On this March Saturday, in Chicago, the better team did not win the game, the team without the better coach lost the game.


Ps. Thank the basketball gods that Arizona covered the +5 point spread, otherwise we would really lay into Lute.