BOBBI OLSON LOVED BY ALL SHE KNEW.

Byline: BILLY WITZ

What Gary Anderson remembers most about Bobbi Olson is that she was the ultimate team mom.

She never missed a game and always seemed to have something nice to say afterward. When players were over at the Olsons for a dinner she cooked, they weren't so much guests as part of the family.

You may have been coached by Lute Olson, but you played for Team Olson.

``They were really a team,'' Anderson said. ``It was one of the great love affairs of America.''

It's been thirty years since Anderson played for Olson at Long Beach City College, but it's clear that the wife of the Arizona coach, who died Monday after a 2 1/2-year fight with ovarian cancer, meant just as much to her husband's players today as she did then.

``She is the beginning of the program,'' said Arizona center Loren Woods. ``Coach Olson does the recruiting, but if you're not getting past Mrs. Olson, you're not getting in the door.''

Anderson, the coach at Long Beach City College, had seen first-hand how little things had changed. His son Ricky, a junior forward who is redshirting, plays for Arizona.

``When Ricky dyed his hair blond, she said `Look at your son. Are you going to do something about that?'' Anderson said. ``I told her since Ricky's here, you've got to tell him what to do.

``She was the same great woman I knew - just as warm and friendly. She was always concerned about the players. I think it's out of the norm by far (in college basketball). She's been an integral part of keeping things solid, comfortable and like home for the players. That's why the program has been so stellar - they've been a team.''

Olson was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after she was hospitalized in Vienna, Austria, with an intestinal blockage in 1998.

Doctors believed they'd removed all the cancer through treatments, but it returned last year. She had been in increasingly poor health this fall and Lute Olson missed his team's game at Connecticut last month to be with his wife.

He took a leave of absence last week to spend her final days with her. It is unclear when he'll return.

Until this season, Bobbi Olson was a fixture at Arizona games and at her husband's side. They were high school sweethearts who were married 47 years and as much as anything else were best friends.

``I knew Bobbi and she was quite a lady,'' said Cal coach Ben Braun, whose team plays at Arizona tonight in the Pac-10 Conference opener.

``What you've heard about how instrumental and supportive she's been to their program is all true.''

This is no secret in Tucson. A memorial service will be held for Olson on Sunday at McKale Center, but the atmosphere should be no less emotional for tonight's game there against Cal and Saturday's against No. 2-ranked Stanford.

The Wildcats, who talked before the year of pursing an undefeated season, are a disappointing 7-4. Bobbi's illness and Lute's absence have no doubt been a factor.

``The ship must go on as painful as it is,'' said Eugene Edgerson, a fifth-year senior. ``We'll mourn as a team and individually and I think we'll move in a more positive direction than a negative one.''

--The Slim Gym: It didn't take long for San Diego's new arena, the Jenny Craig Pavilion, to pick up a nickname: the Slim Gym.

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Photo: Arizona coach Lute Olson and his wife Bobbi wave to fans following the 1997 national championship game. Mrs. Olson died earlier this week.