My buddy Matt received a text from a non-UA affiliated friend earlier today. It just said, “sorry, dude. end of an era.” Matt immediately called me, asking what it meant. I hadn’t heard anything.

But we both knew.

That’s not how I wanted to learn that Lute Olson would never coach for the University of Arizona again. Lute’s last game was 2007’s first round NCAA tournament loss to Purdue. The lasting memory of his final competitive appearance shouldn’t be a Boilermaker guard hitting a shot from his knees as Mustafa Shakur looks on. But it was. Or it is. Or whatever…

That was the last season of true hope. It had been 10 years since Lute’s first and only national championship, and people honestly believed that this could be his next one. Expectations grew and grew throughout non-conference play as the team looked close enough to unstoppable. Even as the Pac 10 exposed their (many) weaknesses, it was easy to believe that this team, like ’97’s, could catch lightening in a bottle and somehow do the impossible — beat their first round opponent, defeat defending (and eventual) champion Florida, and then have enough confidence to slay any dragon in their path. I was drunk with optimism but my theory was simple: if we did it in 1997, we could do it in 2007. Purdue systematically put an end to that. From their knees…

After that game, I wrote this:

In a perfect world, the revelation of the ’97 Theory would have begun by stunning Florida. Analysts around the country would ask, “Could this Arizona team be the next to knock off three number one seeds?” Yes, the ’97 Theory would say as the ‘Cats eventually defeated an obscenely talented Kansas squad (sound vaguely familiar?).

Then, as the ‘Cats prepared to play their third top seeded opponent, the ’97 Theory would step in again, deciding, “let’s avenge the 2001 loss while we’re at it.” Duke would magically be inserted to play the role of soon-to-be runner up. Gilbert Arenas would score the 85 he predicted, with Mike Dunleavy looking on from within a courtside shark tank. Danny Ainge would be fined for sitting next to Ndudi Ebi’s mom during the closing minutes of her son’s phenomenal four years at Arizona. The team would celebrate alongside the Ooh Ah Man, Bobbi Olson, and the Gumbies, while Bennett Davidson partook in the, now traditional, “messing of Lute’s hair.”

The idea that the Purdue loss would be Lute’s last game never even crossed my mind. Eight months later, I suggested that the 2008-2009 Wildcats (with a then projected lineup of Jennings, Bayless, Budinger, Hill, and Withey with Horne, Negadu, and Wise off the bench) would facilitate Lute’s perfect swan song. And that roster might very well have hung a second banner in McKale. But fate despised that roster. More than half of me wishes I never knew what could have been.

What was supposed to be a movie script ending quickly became an Sonoran desert adaptation of HBO’s Rome. The mysterious leave of absence followed by the eventually rescinded successor status of Kevin O’Neil. Miles Simon unceremoniously being let go. Josh Pastner’s curious departure. The drama with the press. Bayless to the NBA. Negadu out of his LOI. The Reger Dowell situation. Gaddy decommiting, later recommitting, and probably decommitting sometime soon. The divorce. The new engagement. The possible NCAA violation. Then this Tuesday’s relative “hug it out” with the press, followed by missing practice and a speaking function yesterday.

In all honesty, today’s news should not, and probably doesn’t, come as a shock. But it’s a shame. There will be a lot of questions in the coming hours, days, weeks, and months. But just as we said upon taking his LOA almost 12 months ago, above all, rauraur.com hopes the best for Lute and the entire Olson family. It’s times like these that truly offer a lesson in perspective.

And now, because it’s the only thing we can think to do, we look back at Lute Olson’s finest moment — but certainly not his only shining one — and accept with heavy hearts that he won’t be able to duplicate it:

Bear Down, Lute. And thanks…