JEFFRY SCOTT / ARIZONA DAILY STAR 2008

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All season, athletic department administrators stressed they did not want the uncertainty of coach Lute Olson's future to distract the Arizona Wildcats on the basketball floor.

Yet Monday's announcement that Olson will return for the 2008-09 season came two days before the Pac-10 tournament, where the Wildcats might be playing for their NCAA tournament lives.

Interim head coach Kevin O'Neill said he found out Sunday night that the announcement would be made Monday.

"I didn't control the timing," he said.

Players were caught off-guard by the announcement — or at least that it was made during the season — but vowed not to be distracted.

"I was kinda surprised," forward Chase Budinger said. "It was just kinda an awkward timing, announcing it. Just the fact of us players, just the timing of the Pac-10 tournament, all of that.

"I do realize this is more for the recruiting class coming in. They've been skeptical of if he was coming back or not. This ensures that Coach Olson will be back next year. So I kinda sympathize with why he came out now instead of after the season."

Budinger said he knows the stakes of Wednesday's game against Oregon State, the only team in Pac-10 history to go winless in conference play.

"I think we have enough motivation on our next game — if we don't win, we're not making the tournament," he said.

Guard Jawann McClellan, the team's vocal leader, said the Wildcats can't afford to lose focus because of the announcement. If they do, they could miss the NCAA tournament for the first time in 24 years.

"You wouldn't think coming to a program like this, it would be like that," he said. "But this whole season has been up and down.

"As far as everything off the court, I've never been a part of anything like it where things off the court can affect things on the court.

"We're men; we're adults. To me, we've handled the situation quite well. We're lucky enough to be 18-13. Obviously we could have a worse record than that, with the key injuries that have happened and everything else that's happened."

McClellan said off-the-court questions have hampered the Wildcats' play.

"I would like to think not, but I'm pretty sure it has," he said.

The news was "another little speed bump" in what has been an drama-filled season for UA players, forward Bret Brielmaier said.

"I wasn't expecting it when I found out," he said. "Was I surprised? I guess that's the administration's job to make that decision."

O'Neill said that "everything in the world can become a distraction if you let it" but is not worried about his players. He said they "carried" the program during uncertain times.

"I think we're both probably at the same mental stage," he said. "I've been through enough that I know what's going on, and they don't quite know what's going on."

O'Neill peppered his answers Monday with jokes and metaphors. He compared being an interim head coach to renting a house — you cannot renovate.

Experience has helped O'Neill through the uncertainty. He likened his situation with having to jump on a milk truck speeding by at 60 mph.

"I'd hate to be a 30-year-old coach, or a 35-year-old coach, in this situation," he said. "It would have been harder for me to handle."

McClellan understands the question of Olson's future has hovered over the program all season — and was bound to be answered eventually.

"I'm gonna be a Wildcat fan after I leave," McClellan said. "I want the program to have its best interest.

"Whether it was the right decision, I'm not to judge that. I won't be here next year. But I like Coach O, and I like KO.

"It is unfortunate it had to come at this point in time. But that's the thing that needs to be done, I guess."