Eddie Sutton...king among men?
Or rather a man among kings?
I ask this not in any attempt to contribute to any piling on...Coach Sutton deserves the respect of any human being faced with a medical problem, despite the questionable behavior that led up to his car accident and subsequent DUI charge (he was on his way to board the team's flight to Stillwater for the Cowboys' Saturday game against Texas A&M).
However, the media rush to beatify Sutton after the announcement of his leave of absence is amazing, if not irresponsible. There is little doubt that Sutton is a good college basketball coach. For Dick Vitale and others to say he is anything more is a gross overstatement. Let's recap: He should be commended for advancing Arkansas to the '78 Final Four (where they were defeated by Joe B. Hall's eventual-champion Wildcats in the semifinal game) before leading the Oklahoma St. Cowboys to a pair of Final Four appearances ('95 and '04).
But what is getting lost in the lauding is Sutton's troubled past. His departure from Kentucky in '89 is well-documented, which makes the recent celebration of his career all the more startling. This man destroyed lives (Manual, Eric) and careers (Casey, Dwayne) in the process of saddling UK with probation and enough ill-will to choke even the most ardent of supporters. In fact, during the '88-89 season, it got so bad even Dick Vitale called for his resignation on ESPN.
To be sure, his career featured several high-points. However, the glossing over of the low-low points is an injustice to those injured along the way. And I most certainly include the UK program in there.
I ask this not in any attempt to contribute to any piling on...Coach Sutton deserves the respect of any human being faced with a medical problem, despite the questionable behavior that led up to his car accident and subsequent DUI charge (he was on his way to board the team's flight to Stillwater for the Cowboys' Saturday game against Texas A&M).
However, the media rush to beatify Sutton after the announcement of his leave of absence is amazing, if not irresponsible. There is little doubt that Sutton is a good college basketball coach. For Dick Vitale and others to say he is anything more is a gross overstatement. Let's recap: He should be commended for advancing Arkansas to the '78 Final Four (where they were defeated by Joe B. Hall's eventual-champion Wildcats in the semifinal game) before leading the Oklahoma St. Cowboys to a pair of Final Four appearances ('95 and '04).
But what is getting lost in the lauding is Sutton's troubled past. His departure from Kentucky in '89 is well-documented, which makes the recent celebration of his career all the more startling. This man destroyed lives (Manual, Eric) and careers (Casey, Dwayne) in the process of saddling UK with probation and enough ill-will to choke even the most ardent of supporters. In fact, during the '88-89 season, it got so bad even Dick Vitale called for his resignation on ESPN.
To be sure, his career featured several high-points. However, the glossing over of the low-low points is an injustice to those injured along the way. And I most certainly include the UK program in there.
2 Comments:
At 1:12 PM, jrob said…
finally somebody has the gumption to say what needs to be said about sutton. my jaw was on the floor this weekend listenning to all the sports reporters talking about his stellar career.
at the college level, coaches are more than just coaches to their players, they are mentors. what a lousy example sutton set for kids at kentucky and now at ok state.
At 12:51 PM, danny v said…
i saw steve lavin on espn talking about how sutton should be in the HoF because he took four schools (creighton, arkansas, UK, and Ok St) and "turned them all into national powerhouses." from what i remember, sutton was *handed* a national powerhouse at UK and almost destroyed it. i guess by lavin's own standard he turned UCLA into a national powerhouse, too.
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