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The loyal soldiers in Lute Olson's Southern Arizona army believe he can restore order at McKale Center and coach the Wildcats to another Final Four.

They believe Olson will return the Arizona Wildcats to their up-tempo style, resume beating Oregon and USC, and brush off Arizona State as a mere annoyance.

In the Book of Lute, there are three enduring articles of faith: 1. Second place is for UCLA; 2. the tears of Senior Day are those of joy, not sorrow; 3. the silver-haired man wearing the blue blazer is both ageless and indestructible.

Amen.

The Kool-Aid business is brisk in Tucson. Lute is back. Bottoms up.

The rank-and-file fan in Olson's vast following believes Kevin O'Neill to be a knucklehead, a failed experiment, and that if Olson brings back Jay John or Jessie Evans, all will be right.

Nobody wants to hear that Olson's return could be brief, or that he will not be able to recruit effectively, or worse, that this season's record, 18-13, might soon be considered a good year at Arizona.

Had he chosen to walk away and retire Monday, Olson could have gone out on top, an unsoiled coaching legend. The final chapter of the Book of Lute would have been about triumph, not adversity.

But for whatever reason, Olson could not resist that inner voice, that hard-headed whisperer persuading him to return to the stage for a final act. My question is: Why?

What's the point? What else can he accomplish? What more can he do?

Unfortunately, Olson has not made himself available to answer these questions.

Is he bored? Is he lonely? Does he have it in him to work 60 hours a week, year-round, to compete with those relatively young coaching studs at Washington and Stanford and everywhere else? Why did he abandon his team — and his devoted fans — without a proper explanation?

No one in this town is going to be satisfied with third place or fifth place or splitting with the Sun Devils.

On Monday, one of the unanswerable questions directed to O'Neill was whether Olson's return meant a "sense of finality."

O'Neill shrugged. He knows better. This is a temporary solution, if it is a solution at all.

In college basketball, "finality" changes with the season. This season, Arizona is in seventh place. But given his age, 73, and the unknown — Olson's health and his motivation — the coach's return will not be monitored season-to-season as much as it will be watched day-to-day.

His detractors do not think he will make it to opening day.

His legion of fans think he will climb a ladder this time next year and cut down some nets.

"It wasn't fitting the way he went out," UA sophomore Chase Budinger said Monday. "I'd like to see him make another charge."

Wouldn't all of us?

The reality is that Olson cut back his work schedule the last few seasons. No one accused him of running a country club, but it was not the same roll-up-your-sleeves-and-kick-some-butts atmosphere that made Arizona basketball a top-10 program from 1988 to 2005.

He made errors in the hiring and firing of staff. Too many recruiting evaluations bombed. Olson is one of the toughest guys I have ever encountered, but his teams no longer mirrored that.

They were often pushovers at the worst possible time. Why? All of the above.

O'Neill said he works 12-hour days, does not take a day off, and "some days I go to 15 hours."

He termed the off-season, April to October, as no off-season at all.

"It is year-round," he said. "To me, the busiest time is the off-season, because of recruiting."

You wonder what Olson has left in his tank. Among the many glittering components of his coaching legacy, foremost was that Olson was always the guy who outworked the guys at Cal and UCLA. It was that commitment that put the Wildcats on top and kept them there.

When he assumes command, Olson must re-examine every facet of his program. Why has so much gone wrong, and how can it be fixed? How can he close the gap that UCLA has established? Is the schedule too tough? Is it suicide to run an up-tempo offense again? Why have so many players failed to reach a useful potential?

Why is Arizona being out-coached by ASU and USC?

Olson's boss, Jim Livengood, could have saved Olson all the scrutiny by getting him to agree to retire. But last week, once UA president Robert Shelton essentially washed his hands of a Lute-or-not decision, it all came down on Livengood.

In this city and at the UA, Lute Olson and his army are far too big for one man to take down.

And so he is back. As Budinger suggested, let's hope there is one more charge.