Before announcing his decision on whether to accept Kentucky’s offer, John Calipari spoke with former UK coaches.
One of them, Eddie Sutton, said he gave Calipari a balanced appraisal. Sutton said that Calipari did not reveal his decision on the job to him.
“I told him all the good things about Kentucky,” Sutton said on Tuesday. “Kentucky has the best things (a coach) would ever want.
“Maybe there are a couple drawbacks.
“I told him it was a great place to coach till our situation occurred.”
Sutton had great success in his first three seasons, winning two Southeastern Conference championships and advancing to a NCAA Tournament region final in 1986.
The fourth season ended with accusations of NCAA rule violations and Sutton’s forced resignation.
“Most of the people there are just great basketball fans,” Sutton said he told Calipari. “There are a few who probably take it a little serious. It’s almost a religion to them.”
Sutton suggested Calipari’s family enjoyed Memphis, making a decision to leave more difficiult.
When asked about drawbacks to the Kentucky job, Sutton said, “You lose some of your privacy. It’s hard to go out and take the family to dinner without a lot of people wanting autographs. It’s something you live with.
“But it also has some real plusses. I didn’t say anything negative.”
Sutton said he had known Calipari since 1995, when their teams (Oklahoma State and UMass) played in the NCAA Tournament region finals.
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Eddie also advised Cal not to use Emery. Hard to leave Memphis with FedEx in your backyard. Who needs FedEx or Emery when you have World Wide Wes.
Where is Eddie Sutton now? Something tells me he may not have stuck around Stillwater.
I have to say I have warm feelings for him. I was just starting to pay attention to UK at the end of JBH’s tenure. I thought Sutton was as good a bench coach as there was.
Most of all, I think the UK fans who hold the scandal against him are misguided. It’s not like everything was squeaky clean before he got here. I doubt he’s any worse than any other big time coach. And, I have little respect for the NCAA and their hypocrisy.
Eddie Sutton is still living in Stillwater and he’s often in attendance at Oklahoma State BB games. As an OSU alum I know I’m biased toward Eddie, and although he made a very serious mistake with the DUI that eventually forced him out as the Cowboys coach, I still consider him to be one of the greatest college BB coaches ever, based on the success he had over an entire career at various schools. When Sutton took the OSU job in 1990, they’d only been to the NCAA tournament twice in the past 25 years, and in his first two years as coach they made the Sweet Sixteen both times, and over his 16 year career at OSU they made the tournament 14 times, which also included an Elite Eight and 2 Final Fours (in 1995 and 2004). So the bottom line on why Eddie Sutton is one of the great coaches is due to the fact that he has done “more with less” than almost anybody else out there (in terms of players, facilities, and at places which at the time were non-marquee basketball names, such as Arkansas and Oklahoma State), and quickly turned them into winners.
Also, I’ve never heard Eddie say a single negative thing about his years as coach at Kentucky, other than to say that he wasn’t guilty of the bribery charges against him there, of which I believe have since been proven to be the case.
[...] Jerry Tipton on UK Basketball – Eddie Sutton tells Cal about UK [...]
Leander, Sutton hit a car while totally plastered and was caught on security video urinating outside a public school. He also laid the blame for OSU’s last final 4 loss on the young man who was most instrumental in getting them there.
And vanity drove him to come out of retirement to get his 800th win (they also counted games his son coached while he was on leave after is auto “accident”)
No one is perfect. Almost everyone is closer than Eddie.
Eddie actually is still in Stillwater, and he even attended a few Cowboy basketball games this year.
[...] Eddie Sutton tells Calipari about UK — Jerry Tipton on UK basketballWhere is Eddie Sutton now? Something tells me he may not have stuck around Stillwater. I have to say I have warm feelings for him. I was just starting to pay attention to UK at the end of JBH’s tenure. I thought Sutton was as good a …http://ukbasketball.bloginky.comWMC-TV: News, Weather, Traffic, Radar, and Sports for Memphis, TN …Coach Calipari says he talked to former University of Kentucky coaches Joe B. Hall, Tubby Smith, Eddie Sutton, and Rick Pitino yesterday. Calipari says the coaches would not trade their time at Kentucky for anything. …http://www.wmctv.comCalipari brings checkered past to Kentucky – SEC Chatter – al.comKentucky endured an embarrassing scandal under Eddie Sutton in 1989 that led to devastating NCAA penalties, including a season without TV appearances — this for a school whose every, single game is televised. …http://blog.al.com [...]
contraption, I certainly wasn’t trying to sugarcoat the DUI situation involving Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma State, but I can tell you that in his 16 years as the Cowboys coach, that was the only alcohol related, or any other type of negative situation that he was ever involved in at OSU. And while it obviously puts a blemish on his coaching record, and will also probably keep him from getting into the coaching Hall of Fame, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that he was one of the great college coaches, and I think most people realize that.
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