Do Lute Olson and Brandon Jennings Deserve Each Other?

It's been a lousy 12 month period for Lute Olson. By any definition. The health issues that kept him from coaching for the year (that were called "personal reasons"); the nasty divorce from his wife (finally settled); the overhauling of his coaching staff last year (that blew up badly); players declaring for the NBA Draft (though, Budinger surprised many by returning); and then the widely heralded recruiting class seemed in jeopardy.

Then it seemed things might be turning around. The coaching staff was drastically overhauled once more, but it paid immediate dividends with regards to getting Chase Budinger to come back for one more season.

When hired on May 15, [Mike] Dunlap said he asked UA head coach Lute Olson if he could work on convincing Budinger to return to Arizona for his junior season. After all, spending the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the NBA Denver Nuggets, Dunlap has an eye for NBA-caliber players.

"Chase has a lot of holes in his game that he needs to fill before he's ready for that next level," said Dunlap, speaking from a podium in the restaurant. "And I just came from that level and I would say to you clearly, he was not a top-25 pick. No way. He wasn't.

"But has he got top-25 talent? Definitely," Dunlap added. "But talent and experience are two things that have to be melted together. He made a wise move to come back."

Brandon Jennings seemed likely to get cleared by the NCAA after the discrepancies between his first and second SAT scores were clarified, and Negedu was released from his scholarship. Things started looking better.

Well...
Rather than simply let it go at releasing Negedu, Olson had to take a shot at the kid in a very candid interview.

"It was not hard. There were some things that came out about his coachability - or his lack of coachability. It was a very easy release," Olson said.
...
"I wanted him to have to sweat a little bit to understand that you make a commitment, you should be a person of your word. But in the end, there was no way in the world I would have had him here," Olson said.

"Just some things had come out from all-star situations and such. The word was, you better hope you don't have to deal with them."

That just comes off as petty, and like a petulant kid saying, "well, fine, I didn't like you anyways."

He also took a shot at a kid who was getting plenty of attention as a top-40 recruit in June. As for the allegations, no one has confirmed any thing like it and he made Negedu look like the adult.

First things first: I've spent the past few weeks talking to pretty much everybody who has ever coached or recruited Negedu, and I should tell you there's not a person who has told me -- on the record or off -- that they agree with Olson's assessment. In fact, everybody I know thinks those comments were crazy and bitter and way out of line, and even the staffs who missed when Negedu committed to Tennessee on Tuesday -- specifically Memphis, Indiana and Georgia Tech -- have said nothing but kind things about the 6-foot-7 forward who will help the Vols be a preseason Top 10 team. In other words, Negedu doesn't have a "coachability" problem.

That's why Olson's comments stung Negedu.

But he declined the chance to respond and fire away.

"I don't know why Lute Olson said those things about me," Negedu said by phone as he rode through Santa Cruz, Calif., while filming a video for CBS Sports Mobile. "I don't know why he said what he said, but Lute Olson is still a great guy. He's a Hall of Fame coach, and even if he doesn't respect me I still respect him."

The interview in general had a lot of strange bitterness and avoiding responsibility by Olson.

In the latest overhaul of his staff, Miles Simon -- a former Arizona star player and one of the assistants was essentially fired in May (his contract was not renewed). This was well after Olson came back and Kevin O'Neill was being shoved away from the team. Yet, Olson denied that he was the one that fired him.

"That decision was not made by me. That was made by the administration. It was supposed to have been released as an administrative decision, and it would have made it a whole lot better for me, rather than my taking the heat.

"That was something that Kevin [O'Neill] had pushed really hard, and I think it had gotten to the administration. That was very unfair to me, I thought, the way it was released. . . . I am still very upset about that."

Yes, upset that his image took a hit. Forget his former player and employee.

Again, this is Lute Olson, Hall of Fame Coach. A man who brought a national championship to Arizona. A guy who could literally take a year off from coaching without an explanation other than "personal reasons" and come right back. Yet Olson, is claiming that he had no control over who was retained on his staff and that it was really Kevin O'Neill who made it happen -- in May.

This brings us to the Brandon Jennings saga. Jennings is still awaiting word from the NCAA about his SAT scores. Jennings started floating the idea of playing one year in Europe and then entering the NBA Draft -- rather than be a one-and-done at Arizona if he didn't qualify.

Then he took it a step further and suggested regardless of the NCAA's ruling.

"It's made me mad," he said of the college board's decision to flag his second round of standardized test scores, forcing him to retake them in May. "Even if I get the scores this time, there's no guarantee I'm going to college. No one has answers and the NCAA is a different group.

"Besides I was planning on one year at Arizona."

Now there are plenty ready to cheer Jennings on to Europe as a way to bypass a NBA rule that does little for college basketball except make further mockery of the idea of elite athletes going to college for anything other than as a minor league and to give players extra marketing exposure before going pro. There were also more than a few who pointed out that Jennings wouldn't make nearly what some claim and might not even get much playing time in Europe.

Really, though, Jennings seems like the perfect player to go to Arizona. Following in the recent footsteps of Salim Stoudamire, Marcus Williams and Chris Rodgers. Players who were there to show-off for NBA scouts. There may be no "me" in Arizona but there is plenty in Jennings and Olson.