One of the biggest reasons for Arizona's success as a program has been player development, a coaching attribute that Lute Olson will forever be remembered by.

From Jud Buechler to Khalid Reeves to Luke Walton, players have consistently entered Arizona needing significant work but maximized their ability before leaving school.

In order for a player to develop, there must be two different parties working towards that goal. One, the player has to have the necessary mindset and work ethic. Regardless of how talented a kid is coming in, with hard work there can always be significant improvement.

Two, the player has to have good and dedicated coaches. You can only get so good without the necessary coaching.

Look at Steve Lavin's UCLA teams and you'll see that the players exited the program not too much better than when they entered. Surely, some of those players had to have good work ethics, but it means nothing without good coaching.

Also, it's important to establish some theories for what attributes can be improved with coaching and what will get better with a good work ethic. The form of a player's shot is something that a coach can fix, but it is up to the player to get in the gym and work hard at becoming a better shooter.

One example would be the shooting of Walton. He entered Arizona as a very bad shooter with form that needed work. The coaches taught him to shoot with a much higher arc and he practiced so much on his own that by the time he left, he was reliable from all the way out to beyond the arc. Arizona's coaches helped the technique, but improving so much at shooting was pure hard work on Walton's part.

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