Lute Olson is out; Mike Dunlap now running the ‘Cats
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It’s official. Lute Olson is out as Arizona’s basketball coach. The leaves Mike Dunlap, a former assistant at Loyola Marymount and USC, as the coach running the show for now.
Dunlap’s name has often surfaced in connection to college jobs. He was mentioned as a candidate for the posts at Stanford, California and, several times, Loyola Marymount, his alma mater.
Dunlap’s first head coaching job was at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, where he led the Kingsmen to three Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Assn. titles in five years.
After that, he spent three seasons coaching the Adelaide 36ers, a professional team in Australia. Then it was on to Metro State in Denver, where he spent nine seasons and his teams won two NCAA Division II national championships.
He joined Arizona’s staff this season as associate head coach, after serving as an assistant with the Denver Nuggets the last two seasons.
Whether he will stick in Tucson remains to be seen. Arizona Athletic Director Jim Livengood is promising a national search for a permanent replacment.
-- Mike Hiserman
