Eddie Sutton, whom I generally detest, took a little shot at Okie Lite: Considering removing his name from their court. Might be what OSU was hoping for all along. I'll say this, he brought them to a level they hadn't seen before, and might not see again for quite a while.
I'm pretty sure we'd seen losing in the Final Four a couple of times before Eddie Sutton came along. We might've even won it a time or two. But he's acting like a child.
I generally dislike Eddie Sutton as a person and a coach, but I disagree that he is acting like a child. His kid got the shaft from OSU and he is rightfully pissed about it. I'm not going to argue that Sean Sutton is a future HOF coach, as I was underwhelmed by his performance. That being said, OSU hired him with a greater appreciation for his abilities than most colleges are able to get during an interview process....they knew what they were getting. To fire him after just two seasons with a 39-29 record is bush league. Im sure OSU faithful are fine with it, cause it allows them to make a run at Self, but coaches in all sports across the country will take note about how he was treated. OSU is showing all the signs of an institution desperate to show immediate results to pacify their deep pocketed sugar daddy. Gundy better be brushing up his resume cause with the team he has coming back, around a .500 record in conference is about the best they can hope for.
Sorry, when you set your son up to follow you like that, you have to realize there's a good chance it will end badly.
I agree with you Orange, Sutton shouldn't have got the axe after 2 years. A lot more is involved here. Pickens and Holder (especially) carrying out a grudge against Eddie. TruPoke is full of **** if he thinks OSu had anything between Iba and Sutton. They WERE bad! Hanson had one good year between the two. I think, like someone mentioned on here, they are setting themselves up for a fall if Self turns them down. Other coaches will have seen how the Pickens power play works. Cross us and your *** is out of here. Someone else mentioned Gundy and yeah that will happen too. He will just be given a little longer.
"OSU's tradition is vastly overrated." That's a vastly hyperbolic statement, or a vast strawman. They're not one of the traditional elite programs, but they've got a place in college basketball history, and nearly two decades of being a name program under Sutton. "A lot more is involved here. Pickens and Holder (especially) carrying out a grudge against Eddie." That's the way I'd look at it if I wasn't down here watching it play out, too, as it's always fun to cherry pick over other people's dirty laundry. But the fact is that it wasn't simply about Sean Sutton's teams' performance. There were many times when the guy didn't even show up for practice. One of Sutton's former teammates who came on board the coaching staff talked about OSU being his dream job and was truly, genuinely excited. A few weeks later he bailed. There's a laundry list of complaints about the way the program was simply being run (or not being run) by Sean Sutton. And, yeah, Eddie should have known what was likely to happen. Everyone and their dog talked about it when Sean took over. Doesn't matter who you are or what your name is, that kind of post-legend hire rarely if ever works. Some people down here see this as the righting of a wrong. I doubt OSU really thinks they're going to get Self, though I'm sure they've made an effort, and if they don't really think they're going to get a "major big time" coach out of this it makes it all the more likely that Sutton was let go for the reasons that have been outlined in the local press. (See: Not showing up for practices, questionable staff moves, general lack of oversight, bad feedback from people inside the program who had been all about Sean Sutton previously.)
What's the story behind the missing practices? I've read that in other places. Was there a speculated reason?
While I respect the tradition that was established under Henry Iba, he did not usher in modern basketball. In the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, he set hoops back a couple of decades.
In bball band at '03 Final Four. At the shootaround, Eddie Sutton was there and talked to me for no less than ten minutes about bball, the Big 12, his thoughts on the tournament. Could not have been a nicer guy and very down-to-earth.
I think it is great for OSU that T Boone has poured about half a billion dollars into their sports programs, but I think he just pissed off some okie lite faithful with this move. We all know he was the driving force behind it and that he will have a new football coach in there by the end of next season. The guy wants them to win but doesn't seem to know how to do it. Money alone does not make winning programs (ask aggie) and bush league moves like that are to the detriment to the program.
