CoMoChief
05-19-2006, 10:54 AM
ESPN reports:
Oklahoma State basketball coach Eddie Sutton, 70, will announce his retirement this afternoon at a 3 p.m. ET press conference in Stillwater, ESPN has learned.
He will be replaced by his son, Sean Sutton, who has been head coach designate for the past several seasons.
Eddie Sutton coached OSU for 16 seasons. He also coached at Creighton, Arkansas and Kentucky over a 36-year career. He was the first coach to take four different schools to the NCAA Tournament. He has coached in three Final Fours.
Sutton pleaded no contest May 5 to drunken driving charges for a traffic accident in which his SUV swerved, collided with another vehicle and then hit a tree.
Sutton, who underwent treatment for alcoholism at the Betty Ford Center in 1987 while he was coach at Kentucky, has said lingering back pain was a factor in his relapse.
"The pain at times literally has been unbearable. ... The pain was so bad that I took a lot of pain pills, but that didn't seem to work, so I succumbed to temptation and went and bought a bottle," Sutton said in a news conference five days after the accident.
Court records showed his blood alcohol concentration was 0.22, almost three times the legal limit.
Since the accident, Sutton has undergone surgery to relieve back and hip pain brought on by a pair of spills two years ago and he also went through a five-week inpatient alcohol treatment program.
Eddie Sutton ranks fifth on the NCAA Division I career coaching wins list with 798, including four that came after he took a medical leave of absence following a Feb. 10 accident but were still credited to his record. His final career record is 798-315.
Only Dean Smith (879), Adolph Rupp (876), Bob Knight (869) and Jim Phelan (830) have more career wins than Sutton.
Oklahoma State basketball coach Eddie Sutton, 70, will announce his retirement this afternoon at a 3 p.m. ET press conference in Stillwater, ESPN has learned.
He will be replaced by his son, Sean Sutton, who has been head coach designate for the past several seasons.
Eddie Sutton coached OSU for 16 seasons. He also coached at Creighton, Arkansas and Kentucky over a 36-year career. He was the first coach to take four different schools to the NCAA Tournament. He has coached in three Final Fours.
Sutton pleaded no contest May 5 to drunken driving charges for a traffic accident in which his SUV swerved, collided with another vehicle and then hit a tree.
Sutton, who underwent treatment for alcoholism at the Betty Ford Center in 1987 while he was coach at Kentucky, has said lingering back pain was a factor in his relapse.
"The pain at times literally has been unbearable. ... The pain was so bad that I took a lot of pain pills, but that didn't seem to work, so I succumbed to temptation and went and bought a bottle," Sutton said in a news conference five days after the accident.
Court records showed his blood alcohol concentration was 0.22, almost three times the legal limit.
Since the accident, Sutton has undergone surgery to relieve back and hip pain brought on by a pair of spills two years ago and he also went through a five-week inpatient alcohol treatment program.
Eddie Sutton ranks fifth on the NCAA Division I career coaching wins list with 798, including four that came after he took a medical leave of absence following a Feb. 10 accident but were still credited to his record. His final career record is 798-315.
Only Dean Smith (879), Adolph Rupp (876), Bob Knight (869) and Jim Phelan (830) have more career wins than Sutton.