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Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.10.2008
It's not easy to replace a legend — even if it may be for only one year.
And it's not easy for fans to know what to think.
Kevin O'Neill has placed the UA basketball team in impressive company while replacing Lute Olson, who is on a leave of absence but has said he plans to return for the 2008-09 season.
Since the first game O'Neill coached at McKale Center, fans have analyzed him, judged him and — fairly or not — compared him to Olson.
It's talked about at sports bars and water coolers, on television and radio and the Internet. It's thought about while fans watch games or ride their bikes or sit in traffic, letting their minds idle.
Two and a half weeks ago, the Star decided to take a snapshot of it.
The Star posted a 15-question poll online just before midnight Jan. 23; the poll closed at 7:21 p.m. on Jan. 28.
The questionnaire asked fans how they thought O'Neill and his team were doing.
Don White, 70, knows there are pros and cons. He likes O'Neill's defensive style and the fact the interim coach doesn't seem to have a doghouse. He wishes O'Neill would play his bench more, and is fearful minutes played by Chase Budinger and Jerryd Bayless will catch up to them by the postseason.
But overall, White is pleased with O'Neill.
"He was put in a tough situation," White said. "I don't think I'd want to be put into it. There are things I'd change, but just a few small things."
Rachel Gross said she can see "the fire" in O'Neill's eyes. Gross, a 21-year-old senior at the UA, appreciates the passion of the interim head coach — and said he is proving a lot to fans this year.
"He had to fill Lute Olson's shoes, and that's a really hard thing to do — to come in and take over," she said. "It takes a lot of courage and guts to do that.
"From afar, he seems like he motivates the players. He'll never be Lute Olson. No one could ever be Lute — be as famous as he is, be the celebrity that he is in Tucson."
There's no debating Olson's popularity. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they wanted Olson to return next year; 51 percent believe he will. Seventy-one percent of respondents said their opinion of whether Olson should or should not return has no bearing on O'Neill's success this season.
Then again, winning improved fans' perception of O'Neill.
Results totaled by 5 p.m. on Jan. 24 — about three hours before the UA defeated then-No. 6 Washington State — differed greatly from the final results totaled the evening of Jan. 28. The change was strong enough to move the final tally by, in many cases, double-figure percentage points.
Here's how O'Neill's popularity jumped from just before the WSU game to four days — and two wins — later:
● Fans "thrilled" when they heard O'Neill was Olson's eventual replacement — 22 percent to 27 percent.
● "Disappointed" by the same news — 25 percent to 16 percent
● Who have "grown fonder" of O'Neill — 42 percent to 61 percent
● Who agree with the changes O'Neill has made — 38 percent to 52 percent
● Who preferred the style of O'Neill's teams, compared to Olson's — 36 percent to 51 percent
Fans have given O'Neill solid marks so far — impressive, given the circumstances of his appointment early in the season.
"I think he's doing pretty well," Gross said. "He's won some key games.
"He just had to take over, you know, like that. It all happened so quickly. He stepped up to the plate and did what he had to do."
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