FanHouse Arizona Basketball

Maybe the most athletic scene Bill Murray was ever a part of came during Caddyshack, when the now famous actor was hacking away at flowers with a garden hoe. No matter if that was the extent of his sports acting career, Luke Murray, Bill's son, is taking the golf lover's passion a step further, joining the University of Arizona's basketball team as a graduate assistant.

The athletic department confirmed to FanHouse on Tuesday that Luke had landed the job, is Bill's son, and will be with the team this season, helping out with all that a graduate assistant does.

"I am tremendously excited to join the men's basketball staff at the University of Arizona," Murray said through the athletics department. "For me, working at Arizona, particularly under Coach (Sean) Miller, is a dream opportunity, and I eagerly await the start of the 2009-10 season."

Retirement is a strange thing for most sports icons. They leave, only to find the spotlight that will never be the same. Public adoration is a drug, and a lot of athletes can't break the habit.

For Lute Olson, retirement was a different sort of challenge. The 74-year-old former head coach at Arizona left, frankly, because he couldn't do the job anymore. Olson, one of the most animated coaches ever to pace the length of the bench, went from coach that couldn't get enough to coach that couldn't do it anymore. Beset by health problems, divorce and a program that couldn't seem to find its way out of a mediocre situation, Olson retired last October so quickly the program barely had time to recover, let alone say goodbye.

Saturday, farewell finally came for Olson and the program he built.

Nic Wise may have made the wisest decision of his yet-to-be started professional basketball career, informing Arizona coach Sean Miller that he plans to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and return to Tuscon for his senior season. Wise was projected as a late second-round pick or perhaps even undrafted. His return gives Miller a veteran, tested player who can help the Wildcats' resurgence.

"We are all very excited with Nic's return," Miller said on the school's Web site. "His talent, leadership and ability will make him one of the premier players in the Pac-10 this coming season. As important, this puts him in position to leave the University of Arizona with his degree. We are looking forward to a great senior year for Nic."

Sean Miller views what's left of his inherited roster at the University of Arizona and realizes he will be his seniors' fourth coach in four years. He is preceded by Kevin O'Neill, Russ Pennell and of course Lute Olson, who retired because of health reasons. Pennell led the Wildcats to the Sweet 16 in March but was told there was no chance he would retain the job.

So Miller takes over after a successful tenure at Xavier, but with only residue of a team in Tucson. Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill declared for the NBA draft and have hired agents while point guard Nic Wise is still pondering his draft options. Miller seeks to bring the tradition back to Arizona but the process will take time, especially considering the recent coaching upheaval.

The upheaval at USC and constant defections at UCLA may have sent conference supremacy north.

The NBA draft's early entries have one month to return to school (June 15), but it doesn't appear any of the Pac-10 entries are coming back. Six underclassmen -- USC's DeMar DeRozan and Taj Gibson, UCLA's Jrue Holiday, the Arizona duo of Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger and Arizona State's James Harden -- will participate in the draft combine beginning May 28 in Chicago, and none are likely to return to their schools. Even Holiday, a projected late first-rounder, is reportedly close to hiring an agent and remaining in the draft.

Stanford has ruled the Pac-10 Women's basketball landscape for the past 20 years, and California and Arizona State have recently emerged to make the conference a three-team scramble for supremacy. But two recent hires by Oregon and USC have made it apparent that women's basketball is indeed becoming a higher priority on the West Coast.

The few weeks after the NCAA Basketball season concludes are traditionally chock full of player movement announcements -- new recruits, transfers, entry entrants into the NBA draft, etc. This year has been no exception, but there is a trend gaining more steam. Having a collegiate basketball player become a football player isn't a new thing. Antonio Gates is an All-Pro tight end who didn't play a snap of college football, for example.

Still, the movement from football to basketball seems to be increasing in recent weeks. It makes sense, considering the speed, quickness and agility needed in both. For post players in basketball, they've become accustomed to a physical game anyway, and have the necessary strength-athleticism combo for a position like tight end. Here are four currently considering the shift:

Update: Is it over? The Wildcats fell to Arizona State 68-56 in the opening round of the Pac-10 tournament.

It was 1983 when Lute Olson first came to Tucson as the head coach of an abysmal basketball program. He had just taken Iowa to the Sweet 16 the year before and was brought to the University of Arizona to turn the Wildcats around. His first season was a rebuilding year. They only won 11 games, missed the NCAA tournament and finished eighth in the Pac-10.

Since that season, Arizona hasn't missed the NCAA tournament, making it 24 straight times.

Now the streak is in jeopardy.

On a night when the University of Arizona honored famed coach Lute Olson during halftime, something became very clear as the ceremonial speeches ended and the basketball began. If the Wildcats want to continue their NCAA streak of 25 consecutive tournament appearances, they would need more than an uplifting video (it got dusty in my apartment) and the memory of a coach that has been through a lot the last two years. The Wildcats need a W.

It wasn't happening, as Jerome Randle absolutely murdered the 'Cats in the second half, helping California (22-8, 11-6) improve to third in the Pac-10 with the 83-77 win and put the Wildcats in another uncomfortable position similar to last season -- leaving their March Madness dreams up to chance.

It wasn't very pretty, but the Washington Huskies did what they hoped to do: Sweep the Arizona schools and assure the program at least a share of the Pac-10 regular season championship for the first time in nearly a quarter century.

Washington took down Arizona State on Thursday 73-70 in Seattle, and today had the Wildcats come to town in desperate need of one more big win to assure they'd be returning to the NCAA tournament for the 25th straight time. The Wildcats dominated in the first half on the back of Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger, but an injury to Hill in the second half and foul trouble for the 'Cats allowed the Huskies to pull away and take it 83-78.