Thursday evening over in Albuquerque, Lute Olson will crank it up again. He'll extend the country's longest NCAA Tournament streak, now at 18 seasons for Arizona, the once sorry program Olson has built into a national powerhouse.

Lute Olson has coached Arizona into 18 consecutive NCAA Tournaments. (AP)

He coaches the No. 3 seed this time, despite the 22 wins, the Pac-10 Tournament title and the RPI of six. Not surprisingly, he shrugs his shoulders at all that. He lets the fans complain about seedings and matchups. You don't rattle Olson too easily. You don't knock a should-be Hall of Famer off kilter with a tournament slight.

"I thought that after winning the tournament we would get a two because of our strength of schedule," he said Monday in his quiet tone. "I'm not on the committee."

This is an NCAA constant now: Olson, 67, fielding a dangerous team. North Carolina is out after a 37-year run, leaving Arizona as the dean of the tourney. So many other coaches of his age, with his experience, have retired to a golf course or an announcer's microphone. Not Olson, who here in his 29th season as a head coach, might have done his best job maximizing his talent, taking a freshmen-loaded team and massaging them into a big-time winner.

"Certainly if anybody were going to say that string (of NCAA appearances) was about to be broken, I'm sure it would have been this year that that would have happened to us," Olson said.

But it wasn't. Not even close. Many people are picking Arizona to fight their way out of the brutal West Regional to reach the final weekend. Some are saying the Wildcats will win it all. This is because of Jason Gardner and Luke Walton and Salim Stoudamire, yes, but it is also because of the respect people have for Olson.

He has led four Arizona teams and one Iowa team to the Final Four. In 1997 his Wildcats won it all. Last year they reached the championship game. He has 661 career victories, closing in on the historic 700 mark. Only John Wooden has a better Pac-10 winning percentage. Eventually he will catch enough attention from Hall of Fame voters to earn an overdue call for enshrinement.

Olson is philosophical about it all. He himself is surprised he has been able to keep this program going so strong for so long.

"It's a great compliment to the program that it's been 18 years," he said. "If you look at it, it's not a university in a populated area with a lot of players around. That's been the amazing thing that we've been able to stay consistent from year to year."

Same with Olson. The guy is as dependable as the desert sun. He never gets too high, never gets too low. When he lost his wife Bobbi last December to cancer, he took a proper amount of time to mourn and then returned to practice, returned to games.

His players marveled at his focus.

"He just kept coaching," said Richard Jefferson during last year's Final Four. "We were all emotional, but when he was on the court he didn't change. He kept getting the best out of us."

When he lost four starters to the NBA last year, when he returned just three proven players and welcomed a host of talented young kids, he barely changed his style. There was a little teaching, but never a relaxing of expectations. When everyone else thought Arizona would fall, Olson and his staff thought they should be ranked in the preseason polls.

Then they went out and beat Maryland on opening night and went on to win the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York. Against one of the nation's toughest schedules Arizona went 22-9. It improved weekly. It stormed through last weekend's Pac-10 tourney. It is playing its best basketball right now. Just like always.

"A lot of it has to do with Coach Olson," said junior guard Jason Gardner. "Being the underdog he always does well."

UC Santa Barbara is up in the first round and not surprisingly Olson is taking them seriously. He's experienced enough tournament disappointments through the years to avoid overlooking anyone. No matter that everyone around the country wants to discuss a potential blockbuster second-round game against Gonzaga. Or how Oklahoma and Cincinnati loom when the regional moves to San Jose.

"The draw is certainly a difficult draw," said Olson. "But there isn't anything you can do about that, you just play it."

And so the Wildcats will. They'll just play it, with Olson, the coaching veteran, the man with the longest current NCAA run, the future Hall of Famer, working the tournament his way. The same way he's been doing it since 1984. That was his first season in Tucson, when he inherited a 4-24 team and last missed out on the tournament.

"I know what we were doing that year," he said. "We were scrambling like crazy to try to get a head start on everybody on recruiting."

It worked. As it seemingly always has for Lute Olson.