Men's Basketball 01/23/2026

Arizona To Celebrate 25th Anniversary of 2001 Final Four Team

TUCSON, Ariz. - The 2025-26 basketball season marks 25 years since the Arizona men's basketball team appeared in the 2001 Final Four and advanced to the championship game in Minneapolis. To commemorate one of the great teams in program history, members of the team will be in attendance and recognized at halftime of the Feb. 7 home game against Oklahoma State.

Additional details and promotions for the day of the game will be announced at a later date.

Tickets to the game are officially sold out, so fans are encouraged to check Seat Geek on the secondary market for available inventory.

The 2000-01 team made the program's fourth all-time appearance in the Final Four and advanced to the national title game for the second time in five years (1997). Many of the players on the team claimed conference and national accolades, like Richard Jefferson being named to the All-Final Four team, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Gardner, Loren Woods and the late Michael Wright all garnering All-American honors and head coach Lute Olson being named the Clair Bee Coach of the Year.

2000-01 Arizona Men's Basketball Roster

#	Name	Pos	Ht.	Year	Hometown / High School
0	Gilbert Arenas	G	6-3	So.	North Hollywood, Calif. / Grant
2	Michael Wright (dec.)	F	6-7	Jr.	Chicago, Ill. / Farragut Academy
3	Loren Woods	C	7-1	Sr.	St. Louis, Mo. / Wake Forest
4	Luke Walton	F	6-8	So.	San Diego, Calif. / University
5	Travis Hanour	G	6-6	Fr.	Laguna Beach, Calif. / Laguna Beach
11	Jason Ranne	G	6-4	Fr.	Tulsa, Okla. / Bishop Kelly
13	Andrew Zahn	F	6-9	Fr.	Redondo Beach, Calif. / Redondo Union
14	Mike Schwertley	F	6-5	Fr.	Phoenix, Ariz. / Brophy Prep.
15	John Ash	G	5-11	Sr.	Tucson, Ariz. / Salpointe
22	Jason Gardner	G	5-10	So.	Indianapolis, Ind. / North Central
23	Lamont Frazier	G	6-3	Sr.	Los Angeles, Calif. / Lon Morris JC
24	Russell Harris	G	5-11	So.	Mundelein, Ill. / Mundelein
30	Justin Wessel	F	6-8	Sr.	Cedar Rapids, Iowa / Prairie
33	Eugene Edgerson	F	6-6	Sr.	New Orleans, La. / St. Augustine
35	Rick Anderson	F	6-9	Jr.	Long Beach, Calif. / Long Beach Poly
44	Richard Jefferson	F	6-7	Jr.	Phoenix, Ariz. / Moon Valley

Head Coach: Lute Olson (18th season at Arizona)

Associate Head Coaches: Jim Rosborough (12th season at Arizona)

Assistant Coaches: Rodney Tention (Fourth season); Jay John (Third season)

Undergraduate Assistant Coach: Josh Pastner (First season)

Coordinator of Operations: Ryan Hansen (Fourth season)

Athletic Trainer: Ed Orr

Equipment Manager: Jeff Bopp

Strength & Conditioning Coach: Carla Garrett

Academic Advisor: Jennifer Mewes

Sports Information Director: Richard Paige

Video Coordinators: Tim House, John Castles

Student Managers: William French, Tony Milka, Jack Murphy, Nathan Weigl

Office Manager: James Post

Administrative Secretaries: Lydia Burch, Monica Armenta

2000-01 Arizona Men's Basketball Schedule

Overall: 28-8

Pac-10: 15-3

Home: 13-2

Road: 6-3

Neutral: 9-3

Nov. 20	vs. Chaminade^	W, 97-57
Nov. 21	vs. Dayton^	W, 76-59
Nov. 22	vs. #8 Illinois^	W, 79-76
Nov. 24	vs. Purdue#	L, 69-72
Nov. 29	Gonzaga	W, 101-87
Dec. 2	Saint Mary's	W, 101-41
Dec. 9	at #15 UConn	L, 69-71
Dec. 16	vs. #5 Illinois	L, 73-81
Dec. 20	LSU	W, 88-75
Dec. 28	Butler	W, 72-60
Dec. 30	Mississippi State	L, 74-75
Jan. 4	Cal	W, 78-75
Jan. 6	#2 Stanford	L, 76-85
Jan. 11	vs. Washington State•	W, 84-51
Jan. 13	at Washington	W, 89-64
Jan. 18	#24 USC	W, 71-58
Jan. 20	UCLA	W, 88-63
Jan. 24	Arizona State	W, 86-75
Jan. 27	#20 Texas	W, 80-52
Feb. 1	at Oregon	L, 67-79
Feb. 3	at Oregon State	W, 68-41
Feb. 8	Washington	W, 82-62
Feb. 10	Washington State	W, 86-51
Feb. 15	at #24 UCLA	L, 77-79 (OT)
Feb. 17	at #23 USC	W, 105-61
Feb. 21	at Arizona State	W, 88-58
March 1	Oregon State	W, 65-54
March 3	Oregon	W, 104-65
March 8	at #1 Stanford	W, 76-75
March 10	at Cal	W, 78-76
March 16	vs. Eastern Illinois !	W, 101-76
March 18	vs. Butler !	W, 73-52
March 23	vs. #14 Mississippi *	W, 66-56
March 25	vs. #4 Illinois *	W, 87-81
March 31	vs. #3 Michigan State $	W, 80-61
April 2	vs. #1 Duke $	L, 72-82

^ - Maui Invitational (Lahaina, Maui)

# - Wooden Tradition (Indianapolis, Ind.)

• - Spokane Arena (Spokane, Wash.)

! - NCAA First/Second Round (Kansas City, Mo.)

*-NCAA Midwest Regional (San Antonio, Texas)

$ - Final Four (Minneapolis, Minn.)

The excerpt below was published in the 2001-02 Arizona Men's Basketball Media Guide that recaps the 2000-01 run to the Final Four:

A preseason No. 1 ranking and the national championship expectations that came with it put plenty of pressure on the 2000-01 squad from the start, but nothing could prepare the team for the adversity that lay ahead.

Arizona opened the season without the services of preseason All-American Loren Woods and put together two easy wins and withstood a furious Illinois rally in the final game to capture the championship of the Maui Invitational without the services of their key man in the middle.

The Wildcats were quickly humbled after returning to the mainland with three losses in their next five games. Three days after the Maui Invitational, Arizona arrived in Indianapolis for the Wooden Tradition to face Purdue in what was essentially a home game for the Boilermakers. The Cats came out flat and never recovered in a 72-69 loss that dropped them from the top spot in the polls.

A pair of home victories over Gonzaga and St. Mary's put Arizona back on track as it prepared to fly across the country once again to face Connecticut on the road. The return of Lauren Woods gave the Cats a full roster for the first time, but the team was still not complete. Head coach Lute Olson remained in Tucson to be with his wife Bobbi. Arizona lost the game, 71-69, on a controversial goaltending call with 1.8 seconds remaining. Olson rejoined the team for the next game, an 81-73 lost to Illinois at Chicago's United Center in another difficult "neutral" game. The second meeting between the teams in less than a month was more physical than the first and left the Cats bruised and battered with a 5-3 record heading into a 5-game homestand.

Arizona began the homestand with an 88-75 win over previously unbeaten LSU, avenging an embarrassing loss the season before in Louisiana that was the worst in the Lute Olson era. That was followed by a 72-60 win over Butler in the opening game of the Fiesta Bowl Classic, which Arizona had won each of the 16 seasons of its existence. However, Olson announced in the locker room before the championship game two days later that he would be taking a leave of absence to support his wife and her battle with cancer. Playing under difficult conditions, Arizona fell to the Bulldogs, 75-74, on a pull up jumper from Antonio Jackson with 9.4 seconds remaining. The loss marked the low point of the season and broke the Cats 31-game Fiesta Bowl winning streak.

The opening of Pac-10 play after the holiday break was to give Arizona a chance to start fresh, but the news of Bobbi Olson's death three days before the conference opener weighed on the team. With Lute Olson on an indefinite leave of absence. associate head coach Jim Rosborough took the reins as he had already done twice before, and led the Cats to an emotional 78-75 win over California in Mckale Center. The game was in doubt until Richard Jefferson's two free throws with 6.6 seconds remaining sealed the victory. The Cats were unable to recover in time for a showdown with second-ranked Stanford two days later. The Cardinal defeated Arizona, 85-76, in Tucson for the first time since 1996. The Cats never led after the first nine minutes of the game as their record dropped to 8-5.

Ironically, after a harrowing early season road schedule, what the team needed most was to get back on the road. Arizona seemed to regain its focus on the subsequent road trip to Washington in which the Cats, with Roseborough still at the helm, won a pair of games by a combined margin of 58 points. When Arizona arrived home to face the Los Angeles schools, it did so fully intact for just the fourth time all season. Olson returned to guide the Cats to a pair of easy wins over USC and UCLA that improved them to 12-5 on the season and second place in the conference at 5-1. An 86-75 win over Arizona State and a non-conference victory over Texas helped rebuild the team's confidence heading into a difficult conference road trip.

With a No. 7 ranking and a six game-winning streak, Arizona appeared to be back at the level of preseason expectations. But Oregon took advantage of a poor shooting night from the Cats to hand them a 79-67 loss that dropped Arizona one spot back in the Pac-10 standings. But the team rebounded with three straight victories over Oregon State and the Washington schools before heading to Los Angeles.

Arizona's hopes for a conference championship were severely threatened by 79-77 overtime loss to UCLA. The loss gave Arizona little hope of catching first-place Stanford in the conference standings, but served as motivation for the rest of the regular season. The Cats reeled off 6 consecutive victories to end the season. One of those victories was a 76-75 win over top ranked Stanford on a Michael Wright layup with three seconds left that all but assured the Cats of a No. 2 seed in the tournament, and a second place finish in the conference. Arizona's narrow 78-76 victory over California two days later gave the Cats momentum entering the tournament, having won 15 of their last 17 games.

Arizona took its hot streak and No. 2 seed into the West region of the NCAA Tournament and scorched its first two opponents, Eastern Illinois and Butler, by a combined margin of 26 points. The regional finals in San Antonio proved to be more of a challenge as the Wildcats were forced to bully their way through two defensive-minded teams. Despite coming out cold and falling behind 18-6 in the first half, Arizona banged its way through the defense of Mississippi and demonstrated its own defensive stubbornness, holding the Bulldogs to six points in the final 10:11, in a 66-56 win in the regional semifinals. The win gave the Pac-10 three teams in the final eight in the tournament and set up a rubber match against Illinois in the West Regional Championship. The physical nature of the first two games was just a preview of the third, as the teams combined to commit 59 fouls (36 by Illinois). Arizona used clutch shooting from Jason Gardner and key rebounding down the stretch from Woods to pull out a 87-81 victory that sent the team to Minneapolis for the school's fourth trip to the Final Four.

Even with the preseason expectations of a berth in the Final Four fulfilled, the season was not yet complete. The Cats were looking to win the title for Olson and got one step closer to that goal with an 80-61 victory over Michigan State in the semifinal. A five-minute stretch of hot shooting and stifling defense to begin the second-half propelled the Cats to the win over the defending national champions. Arizona went on a 21-3 run and withstood a late Spartan rally to reach the school's second championship game in five years.

"It was a great performance," Olson said. "I thought particularly in the second half, we made it difficult for Michigan State to get looks and we made a run."

Arizona intended to put a storybook ending to the season entering the national championship game period. "It's been real tough, what the coach has gone through and what the team has gone through," Richard Jefferson said after the semifinal game. "For us as a team. We've been talking about it a long time. The season is dedicated to Mrs. Olson."

Unfortunately for Arizona, not every good story can have a perfect ending. In a showdown between the top two preseason picks, Duke outlasted the Cats, 87-72. Woods led all scorers with 22 points, but Arizona suffered a cold shooting night from the perimeter. And the Blue Devils hit key shots to stave off several Wildcat rallies. Despite the disappointment, Olson understood what it had taken for his players to get to that point.

"All the emotions they had to go through, and they withstood them and did a great job. To get to the final game," Olson said. "It's tough. Someone's got to lose it. Duke is deserving. We gave them a good run and couldn't get it done."

The 2000-2001 squad did give Olson and Arizona its fifth top ten final ranking in eight years, 14th consecutive 20-win season and 17th straight NCAA appearance. More importantly, by winning 18 of their last 21 games, the Cats were able to withstand the adversity of a tumultuous season and ultimately return to the top.

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Arizona To Celebrate 25th Anniversary of 2001 Final Four Team