The story of Lute Olson, the University of Arizona, and Midnight Lute

When you think of a basketball legend in the state of Arizona, Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson comes quickly to mind. When you think of a horse racing legend from the Grand Canyon State, trainer Bob Baffert tops the list.

Their stories intertwined with an equine superstar named Midnight Lute.

Lute Olson was one of the greatest coaches in NCAA basketball history. After tenures at Long Beach City College and Long Beach State, Olson inherited a mediocre Iowa team in 1974 and turned it into a Big Ten champion four years later, and took the Hawkeyes to the Final Four a year after that.

In 1983, Olson took up the challenge of rebuilding the Arizona Wildcats. The year before he arrived, they had a dreadful 4-24 record. In Olson's second year, they went 21-10. They made the NCAA Tournament that year — the first year of a 25-year streak of Big Dance bids. His crowning achievement came in 1997, when his Wildcats knocked off three No. 1 seeds on the way to a national championship.

To build a top team, a coach needs to recruit, and that's where the "midnight" bit came in. Olson had a history with UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian.

Sometimes it was friendly. They'd go to lunch together, or they'd run into each other at the races at Del Mar. Sometimes it was more cutthroat.

In 1987, Olson was interested in junior college prospect Tom Tolbert. So was Tarkanian. Olson would tell you Tolbert was going to Arizona all along. Tarkanian thought Tolbert had his eye on UNLV after a visit and chose Arizona after a last-minute meeting with Olson. Tarkanian flung a barb that stuck — "Midnight Lute" Olson.

Recruiting in horse racing works a little differently. It's unlikely Midnight Lute got his name from any kind of last-minute antics that put him in Baffert's barm or under the silks of Mike Pegram and his partners. Though the son of Real Quiet sold for $70,000 as a yearling at Keeneland September in 2005, he was an RNA the next March at OBS, despite bids going up to $290,000, but sold to his new connections after the auction.

In his lone two-year-old start, he showed why the name Midnight Lute suited him perfectly. If he was in the race against you, there was a good chance he would pop up and snipe you. Though he broke slowly in his debut, he had plenty of energy to make a wide run around the turn, sustain it in the lane, and run on for a 1 1/4-length victory.

Midnight Lute didn't race again for a year and three days, but rewarded his connections' patience by growing into the stakes horse they had always hoped for. He won the Perryville (G3) at Keeneland during the fall of his three-year-old year, set a track record, and finished third in the Malibu (G1), as well.

As can happen when a big horse like Midnight Lute gets the time he needs, he got even better at age four. Midnight Lute won his first Grade 1 in the Forego, then carried that momentum to the Breeders' Cup. Monmouth may have been a muddy mess, but it did not stop him from dominating the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1).

He only raced three more times. He was runner-up in the 2007 Cigar Mile (G1), then finished a troubled 10th in the 2008 Pat O'Brien (G2). However, Midnight Lute saved his best for last. In the 2008 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita, he settled in last after a familiar slow break but unleashed his devastating kick one last time, caught Fatal Bullet at the sixteenth pole, and won going away.

Whether on the basketball court or the racetrack, when it counted, Midnight Lute probably had your measure.