Soap Opera in Tucson

by Paragon SC on Mar 28, 2008 5:41 AM PDT Comment 2 comments

I don't normally comment on other programs in too much detail but the situation at Arizona caught my eye and it will be interesting to follow.

After all that has happened this season at Arizona, things continue to be weird. It started with Lute Olson taking an unexpected leave, Assistant Coach Kevin O'Neill taking over on an interim basis, then being named coach-in-waiting, followed by a slew of injuries, then Lute Olson apparently returning and holding meetings with the players and undermining O'Neill.

When Olson made it public that he was coming back as the coach next year, the speculation was that Kevin O'Neill was toast. His relationship with Olson appeared soured. The whispers were that he was not going to go back to being an assistant and that Olson didn't want him back.

I would expect O'Neill move on as situations like this never turn out well but that might not be the case. While Olson and O'Neill may have met and ironed out their differences it seem that AD at Arizona might not be on board.

Arizona Athletic Director Jim Livengood doesn't quite appear to be on the same page.

"Things change all the time," Livengood said Wednesday. "It was set up at that point, certainly, in case Lute didn't come back. It's hard to say as we move forward. Right now, Lute is back as our head coach."

Livengood said in a Dec. 18 statement that O'Neill "will be our coach in the future when Lute decides to retire." That's still what O'Neill appears to be thinking.
...
When told O'Neill said he intended to be the next UA head coach, Livengood said: "Any of our coaches can say anything they want. He was answering a question."

This could real ugly. With Cal Firing Ben Braun will they look at O'Neill? He has some recruiting contacts and he knows how to play against the other Pac 10 teams so it would not surprise me if Cal came calling.

This is why the "coaches in waiting" type of deals are always risky. We'll keep an eye on this.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Conquest Chronicles' writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Conquest Chronicles' writers or editors.

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Cal fans would be on suicide watch...

if they hired O'Neill. Cal AD better be knocking down Monty's door 24/7. It's going to be madness if Cal hires Monty. Cal fans will rub it in the face of Stanford fans, and Stanford fans will have to throw up one bold lie after another trying to argue that Trent is a better coach than Monty, when in their hearts they know it's nowhere close to the truth. Can you imagine PC going to the NFL and coming back to coach UCLA?! What a nightmare.

by AO on Mar 28, 2008 8:27 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs