Sutton's 800th win could take a while
Posted: Thursday, December 27, 2007 12:24 AM
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Coaches
The scowl is back. The only question is, when will that scowl see its 800th victory?
Longtime coach Eddie Sutton, out of the game for nearly two years after the fallout from a DUI when he was at Oklahoma State, is bringing his hangdog look to the West Coast to take over the San Francisco Dons.
Sutton, 71, is just two wins shy of becoming the fourth D-I coach to reach 800 wins. The others? Texas Tech’s Bob Knight (896), Dean Smith (North Carolina, 879), Adolph Rupp (Kentucky, 876) and Jim Phelan (Mount St. Mary’s, Md., 830). Only Knight has more wins than Sutton among active coaches.
Sutton says he missed coaching, but admitted he also wanted to reach that milestone, which would be a much more suitable cap to his career than how his time in Stillwater ended up. A milestone like 800 victories is easy to see why Sutton would want to return. It’d be quite a feat, even better than being one of four coaches to take four different teams to the NCAA Tournament (Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and the Cowboys).
(More impressive tidbits? Only eight men’s coaches have reached 800 in every NCAA classification. Mike Krzyzewki will also reach it at some point this season – probably in late February – while Lute Olson, Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun figure to hit the mark next season.)
Sutton will make the Dons (4-8) better instantly. He’s renowned for coaching defense, which produces wins quickly because it usually doesn’t depend upon the team’s overall talent, unlike offense. Anyone can play defense, if the coach provides the technique and motivation.
Still, No. 800 may not come very soon. He’s not familiar with the players, who haven’t had a winning season since 2004-05.
The school says Sutton will be on the sidelines for Friday’s game at Weber State (4-7). After that is a Monday game at Utah Valley State (5-8). If the Dons lose either one of those games (likely, according to kenpom.com), Sutton will have to work some coaching wizardry to see No. 800 before February.
Games against Holy Cross, San Diego, Portland, Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara make up the January schedule, which isn’t going to be easy for this crew. Those teams have a combined record of 43-27, and only San Diego (6-8) and Portland (4-8) have losing records – but both games are road contests for USF.
Bottom line: Sutton will get his chances for No. 800, but it isn’t going to be easy. Nor is he going to turn USF back into the hoops power it once was. (I.e. Bill Russell, K.C. Jones and back-to-back NCAA Tournament titles.)
But it’s a nice story for Sutton.
