Matt Ortega

There are new details on Lute Olson’s decision to step down as head coach of the Arizona Wildcats basketball team.

Lute Olson’s doctor said Tuesday that the former Arizona basketball coach had a stroke within the last year and he advised him to retire.

The comments by Dr. Steven Knope at a news conference called by Olson’s family offer the first explanation for Olson’s sudden retirement last week, two days after he appeared at the Wildcats’ media day. Olson said at the time he was energized and looking forward to his 25th season with Arizona.

Knope said an MRI confirmed the stroke in the frontal part of Olson’s brain, which left the Hall of Famer with severe depression and impaired judgment.

These details contradict what the school claimed was behind Olson’s year-long absence from the team.

Olson returned to the Arizona program after taking a year-long leave of absence, which the school said was not taken for health reasons.

This one hurts. ESPN:

Arizona’s Lute Olson is stepping down as the school’s men’s basketball coach, a source has told ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale.

Associate coach Mike Dunlap will take over the head coaching duties on an interim basis, the source told Vitale. The timing of Olson’s announcement is uncertain, Vitale reported later Thursday. Vitale reports that the move is imminent.

Arizona spokesperson Tom Duddleston said Thursday morning that Olson hasn’t informed the administration that he is resigning. Duddleston said he went to his superiors and was told, “no way,” in response to the report.

“We’re not making any announcement to that effect,” Duddleston said. “At this moment there is nothing going on.”

Freshman running back Keola Antolin rushed for 149 yards and three touchdowns as the Arizona Wildcats (5-2, 3-1) rolled to a 42-27 victory past the California Golden Bears (4-2, 2-1) in Tucson on Saturday.

“I can’t put into words to describe what we came through to get here,” said Arizona coach Mike Stoops, who beat a ranked opponent for the sixth time in five seasons in the desert. “A lot was written and much said and a lot of times we were written off, but we keep coming back.” [...]

Asked if the Bears had prepared to face Antolin, Cal linebacker Anthony Felder shook his head and said, “No. 2? We didn’t see any of him on tape. The whole thing was Grigsby.”

While Antolin was running wild, Arizona’s defense shut down Cal’s potent attack, limiting the Golden Bears to a field goal across the final 30 minutes.

The win puts Arizona in a four-way tie for first place in the PAC-10 conference with #5 USC (5-1, 3-1), Oregon (5-2, 3-1), and Oregon State (4-3, 3-1). California holds sole possession of second place.

Arizona will host USC on October 25. Since dropping to Oregon State 27-21 on October 4, USC has held opponents to 10 points over the last three games — Oregon (44-10), Arizona State (28-0) and Washington State (69-0).

With one of the most potent offenses in the PAC-10 — granted against teams like the Idaho Vandals ( 1-5, 0-2), Toledo Rockets (1-4, 1-1), UCLA (2-3, 1-1) and the Washington Huskies (0-5, 0-3) — the Arizona Wildcats (4-1, 2-0) received five votes in the latest AP Top 25 rankings, and sixteen votes in the Coaches poll — an improve on their showing in week three. Arizona was ranked 38th nationally before falling to a winless New Mexico in Albuquerque.

This weekend, Arizona travels to Palo Alto and take on the Stanford Cardinal (3-3, 2-1) before hosting unranked California (4-1, 2-0) and #8 USC (3-1, 1-1).

Last night, the Arizona Wildcats (4-1, 2-0) continued their uncharacteristically high-powered offense this season with a 48-14 victory over the winless Washington Huskies (0-5, 0-3) in Tucson.

Rob Gronkowski matched a school record with three touchdown catches, Nic Grigsby ran for 113 yards and a touchdown and Arizona routed winless Washington 48-14 on Saturday night.

Willie Tuitama completed 17 of 21 passes for 193 yards and threw three touchdown passes for the Wildcats (4-1, 2-0), who are looking to end the Pac-10’s longest active bowl drought at nine years.

Wildcats rank among the top three in the PAC-10 in team scoring (43.6 points per game, first), team rushing yards (170.4 yards per game), passer rating (Willie Tuitama, 157.33), passing yards (Tuitama, 1207 yards), rushing yards (Nic Grigsby, 548 yards) and receiving yards (Mike Thomas, 434 yards).