TUCSON, Ariz. -- Lute Olson, Arizona's Hall of Fame basketball coach whose team is ranked No. 1 in the country, plans to marry a prominent Pennsylvania woman on April 12.

Olson, beaming at a news conference, said Wednesday he and Christine Jack Toretti met at an NCAA Foundation dinner at last year's Final Four. Toretti, 46, is a Republican national committeewoman and CEO of an oil and gas drilling company.

"This is such a happy occasion," Olson said. "I'm just happy to share it with people."

The wedding is to take place five days after the NCAA championship game in New Orleans.

Olson, 68, said he has no plans to retire. Toretti will keep her home in Indiana, Pa. The couple will live in Tucson during the basketball season, he said.

The marriage comes a little more than two years after the death of Olson's wife of 47 years, Bobbi, of cancer. The floor at Arizona's McKale Center is named Lute & Bobbi Olson Court.

Olson said his five children are extremely supportive of his plans.

"Bobbi and I spent a lot of time together -- recruiting, team trips, everything. ... It's been a very difficult two years and three or four months," Olson said. "When I talked with my family about it, they just said, 'Dad, we want you to be happy, and we can see the difference that Christine has made in your life.' "

Toretti has three sons, ages 15, 12 and 10. She is chairman and CEO of S.W. Jack Drilling, one of the country's largest independent oil and gas exploration companies. She inherited control of the company upon the death of her father, Sam Jack Jr., in 1990.

President Bush named her to the Energy Advisory Committee for the Bush-Cheney transition team. She also is on the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education committee and serves on the board of directors of the Pittsburgh Opera, the National Council of Colonial Williamsburg, the Carnegie Institute, the Andy Warhol Museum and the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum.

Olson said he is a registered independent, but added "my independence has probably been shaken a bit."

Olson said arrangements were made for the two to sit together at the Atlanta dinner because they were the only two single people there. Olson said that when Toretti was told she was going to sit next to Lute Olson, "She said, 'Who's Lute Olson?' Yeah, she's really followed us very closely."

He proposed to her on Jan. 25, the day after the Wildcats rallied from a 20-point deficit to win at Kansas. Olson said the location of the wedding is private.