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At halftime of the 2005 Lute Olson summer All-Star Weekend, all those from the UA basketball family whose faces were not immediately recognizable gathered at midcourt to introduce themselves.

"Scott Thompson, assistant coach, 1983-87.''

"Lou Baltus, video manager, 1993-94.''

"Brad Jepson, basketball operations coordinator, 1993-97.''

I watched as Kevin O'Neill moved closer to the microphone. He had not sat on Arizona's bench for 16 years. His identity was no longer as a former Olson lieutenant, but rather as a coaching vagabond who had bounced from Marquette to Tennessee to Northwestern and on to so many NBA jobs that you couldn't keep up.

I suspected not many in the audience, typical of Tucson's evolving demographic, knew or remembered O'Neill.

Barely pausing to stop, he grabbed the microphone, and in a rushed monotone said, simply, "Kevin O'Neill'' and moved on.

There was no time for applause or a brief appreciation.

As we have learned since O'Neill's return to McKale Center last spring, he is not a warm and fuzzy, kick-back-and-re-live-the-past charmer. He is polite and socially sensitive, but he is a basketball coach, not a politician.

He is Lute Olson 180.

Had O'Neill waited for Olson to retire before campaigning for the job, he would not have gotten through the front door.

At no time in the last 10 years was O'Neill mentioned prominently as Olson's possible successor. A year ago today, for example, O'Neill would not have made the list if someone had put together a realistic grouping of 10 possible Olson replacements.

Gonzaga's Mark Few was on everybody's lips. And surely Jim Livengood would have been sharp enough to first offer Steve Kerr the job. Who else? It was not a glittering field because Arizona did not have enough money to chase someone like Billy Gillispie.

But between Christmas 2006 and the 2007 NCAA tournament, Kerr, who has Livengood's ear, began to talk in earnest about bringing O'Neill back to the family. The more Arizona struggled against the Pac-10's bloc of discipline-and-defense newcomers — UCLA's Ben Howland, Washington State's Tony Bennett and USC's Tim Floyd — the more it made sense.

If nothing else, O'Neill is a chip off that bloc.

Now, eight months later, with O'Neill triggering a top-10 recruiting class, yada, yada, yada, it makes perfect sense for him to be Arizona's next basketball coach. He is family, he is affordable and he is here.

Victories over Texas A&M and Illinois, and a rediscovered sense of purpose among the once-soft Wildcats, combined to close the deal. As on-the-job tryouts go, O'Neill knocked 'em dead.

Can you imagine where UA basketball would be had he not been available? It is too painful to imagine.

As a bonus, it saves confidence-lacking Wildcat fans from the uncomfortable process of watching Livengood search for and hire Olson's replacement. After a series of inept personnel moves disarmed the once-productive UA football program, the best scenario was for Olson to designate a successor and save Livengood the angst.

And isn't that essentially what Olson did by reuniting with O'Neill?

Although the Wildcats appear to have hit a home run, or certainly a bases-loaded triple, by acquiring O'Neill, much uncertainty remains. Olson's potential return in 2008-09 stands to be awkward. Does O'Neill step back in deference as Olson re-implements his uptempo system?

Can anyone, especially a Type A personality such as O'Neill, a head coach at three major colleges and in the NBA, swallow his ego for a full season without some major discord?

I suppose that is why Olson, Livengood and O'Neill get the big money. They will have to find a way to make it work, or the whole thing could implode, just as the UA repositions itself for another long run in the Top 25.

One thing that will not be missing is a mutual respect. Olson has always identified O'Neill as the top assistant of his long career. And O'Neill has never missed a chance to pay homage to his mentor.

The day after No. 1 Arizona was eliminated from the 1989 Sweet 16 by UNLV, by pure coincidence, I was seated next to Olson on a Denver-to-Tucson flight. I asked Olson if he expected O'Neill to return for the 1989-'90 season.

"We won't be seeing Kevin here much longer,'' Olson said. "He's ready to go. He's going to be an excellent head coach.''

A few weeks later, O'Neill, 32, just a kid in the coaching business, was hired at Marquette. What happened across the next 18 years, good, bad and unpredictable, could fill a very lengthy book.

At 50, no longer a kid, O'Neill begins his sequel at Arizona. For better or worse, it should be a fascinating read.