Longtime Arizona coach Olson dies

Lute Olson, the Hall of Fame coach who turned Arizona into a college basketball powerhouse, died Thursday, his family said. He was 85.

Olson spent 24 seasons at Arizona, transforming a program that had been to the NCAA Tournament just three times in 79 years before he was hired in 1983. He won a schoolrecord 589 games at Arizona, 11 Pac10 titles and was named the conference coach of the year seven times.

“He was a great and honorable man,” tweeted KNBR host Tom Tolbert, who played for Olson at Arizona. “He built an incredible program and helped mold some pretty incredible men.”

Arizona won a national championship under Olson in 1997 with a team led by Mike Bibby, Jason Terry and Miles Simon. Olson’s Arizona teams reached the Final Four four times and lost the 2001 national title game to Duke.

Golf: Hideki Matsuyama made a 65foot birdie putt on his final hole to cap a round of 3underpar 67 for a oneshot lead in the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship in Olympia Fields, Ill. Tyler Duncan made an 8foot par putt on his last hole for a 68 and Mackenzie Hughes was another shot behind.

Justin Waters shot 8under 64 for a threeshot clubhouse lead in the European Tour’s UK Championship in Sutton Coldfield, England. After a rain delay, play was stopped because of darkness with 59 players having not completed their round.

College football: A group of Nebraska players filed a lawsuit, hoping a jury will force the Big Ten to reinstate a fall season.

The Big Ten said the lawsuit “has no merit and we will defend the decision to protect all studentathletes as we navigate through this global pandemic.”