JimBob
03-01-2008, 08:22 AM
Holder needs to unzip his lips
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
3/1/2008
FIVE BIG 12 Conference men's basketball coaches are in the final days of the second season at their respective schools.
The one with the most overall wins, and the only one of the five to take his team to the postseason in his rookie year, is apparently also the only one fighting to save his job.
Here are the overall records of the Big 12's sophomore coaches going into Saturday's games:
Sean Sutton: Oklahoma State 37-25.
Doc Sadler: Nebraska 34-23.
Jeff Capel: Oklahoma 34-25.
Mike Anderson: Missouri, 33-25.
Gregg McDermott: Iowa State, 29-30.
Sutton, who took OSU to the NIT last season while the other four first- year coaches stayed home, has his streaking Cowboys back in the post-season hunt again.
OSU's young team has grown up the past month, winning four straight and five of its last six. That streak, which includes victories over teams ranked No. 4 and 16 at the time and also two road wins, indicates the future is bright for a rapidly maturing team that starts one senior.
But Sutton doesn't have any idea if he's a part of OSU's hoops future.
No one questions if Capel, Sadler, Anderson and McDermott will return for the 2008-09 season. Ditto for the 2009-10 season.
If they leave, it'll be their decision and not the wishes of the schools that signed them to five-year contracts.
That's why those continued sounds of silence at OSU are both deafening and baffling.
The future of a second-year coach with Sutton's accomplishments shouldn't even be an issue. But OSU athletic director Mike Holder made it one by his refusal to shoot down the rumors when they first started flying.
Holder fans, who also happen to be Sutton critics, maintain the Cowboys' AD doesn't have to say any more than what he told the Tulsa World on Jan. 28 when he said he supported Sutton.
OK, fine. But how long does that support last? Read Holder's comment and you decide.
"We've got a lot of games left to play," Holder said.
Holder was talking about this season, not the next four.
If he were talking about anything else, he would have said something similar about Mike Gundy in the football coach's second season. Holder told people to check back in five years to see how Gundy was doing.
Three days after talking to the World about Sutton, Holder told The Daily Oklahoman: "It's like every other program, we should just wait until the end of the year and see how the season plays out. Every sport here we evaluate after the season."
That's obviously every sport but football. Gundy had seven games left in his second season when Holder felt compelled to make his "five year" comment after OSU blew a 10-point lead in the final four minutes and lost at Kansas State.
Sutton's critics have said hecan't be compared to Gundy because of the history of the sports they coach at OSU. That logic's so twisted it's downright goofy.
OSU does have two national titles in hoops and zero in football. But the last basketball championship came 62 years ago!
Like football, the basketball program spent years wandering through the wilderness.
It was Sean Sutton, as both a solid player and excellent assistant coach, who helped enormously to restore OSU's long-dormant national reputation. True, he's been part of teams that ONLY made it to two Final Fours, but didn't win national titles.
If you think winning a national championship in 1946 was as difficult as it's been during Sutton's time at OSU, you're either out of touch with reality or hell-bent on getting him fired.
Gundy, meanwhile, did not take over a program that was destitute of success. The Cowboys had been to three consecutive bowl games when he was promoted to replace Les Miles.
And then there's the misconception that Holder hired Gundy, but not Sutton. And Holder wants coaches who are "his guys."
There is absolutely no doubt that Gundy is Holder's favorite guy. But Harry Birdwell was AD when Gundy was tapped to replace Miles.
Holder did the right thing when he stepped in during that second season and implored fans to give a Gundy five-year chance to prove himself.
The conventional wisdom is that OSU's recent success will force a reluctant Holder to give the embattled Sutton one more season.
I'm not buying that for a Still water second. If that were the case, why wouldn't Holder have already come out and confirmed it?
And to heck with one more season. Like Gundy, Sutton deserves the length of his contract to demonstrate if he can succeed at the Big 12 level.
Holder needs to speak up ASAP to stave off the negative recruiting other coaches are using big time against Sutton and OSU.
Yes, I know the majority of high school recruiting happens in the summer. But junior college recruiting is going on right now.
And Sutton's effort to sign a player from the junior college ranks, who will give OSU a badly needed dominant inside presence next season, has been severely handcuffed by the uncertainty about the coach's future.
Look, when you get down to it, fairness is what this is about. Just treat Sutton with the same amount of fairness afforded Gundy.
If Holder doesn't want to speak up now, how about some members of OSU's Board of Regents demonstrating they are more than mere figureheads? And an encouraging word from incoming president Burns Hargis would also be welcomed.
Or is the prevailing and growing perception about OSU true? Is it really only Holder and mega-donor Boone Pickens who truly run OSU?
Those sounds of silence coming from OSU's perceived movers and shakers would seem to scream that it's a fact.
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
3/1/2008
FIVE BIG 12 Conference men's basketball coaches are in the final days of the second season at their respective schools.
The one with the most overall wins, and the only one of the five to take his team to the postseason in his rookie year, is apparently also the only one fighting to save his job.
Here are the overall records of the Big 12's sophomore coaches going into Saturday's games:
Sean Sutton: Oklahoma State 37-25.
Doc Sadler: Nebraska 34-23.
Jeff Capel: Oklahoma 34-25.
Mike Anderson: Missouri, 33-25.
Gregg McDermott: Iowa State, 29-30.
Sutton, who took OSU to the NIT last season while the other four first- year coaches stayed home, has his streaking Cowboys back in the post-season hunt again.
OSU's young team has grown up the past month, winning four straight and five of its last six. That streak, which includes victories over teams ranked No. 4 and 16 at the time and also two road wins, indicates the future is bright for a rapidly maturing team that starts one senior.
But Sutton doesn't have any idea if he's a part of OSU's hoops future.
No one questions if Capel, Sadler, Anderson and McDermott will return for the 2008-09 season. Ditto for the 2009-10 season.
If they leave, it'll be their decision and not the wishes of the schools that signed them to five-year contracts.
That's why those continued sounds of silence at OSU are both deafening and baffling.
The future of a second-year coach with Sutton's accomplishments shouldn't even be an issue. But OSU athletic director Mike Holder made it one by his refusal to shoot down the rumors when they first started flying.
Holder fans, who also happen to be Sutton critics, maintain the Cowboys' AD doesn't have to say any more than what he told the Tulsa World on Jan. 28 when he said he supported Sutton.
OK, fine. But how long does that support last? Read Holder's comment and you decide.
"We've got a lot of games left to play," Holder said.
Holder was talking about this season, not the next four.
If he were talking about anything else, he would have said something similar about Mike Gundy in the football coach's second season. Holder told people to check back in five years to see how Gundy was doing.
Three days after talking to the World about Sutton, Holder told The Daily Oklahoman: "It's like every other program, we should just wait until the end of the year and see how the season plays out. Every sport here we evaluate after the season."
That's obviously every sport but football. Gundy had seven games left in his second season when Holder felt compelled to make his "five year" comment after OSU blew a 10-point lead in the final four minutes and lost at Kansas State.
Sutton's critics have said hecan't be compared to Gundy because of the history of the sports they coach at OSU. That logic's so twisted it's downright goofy.
OSU does have two national titles in hoops and zero in football. But the last basketball championship came 62 years ago!
Like football, the basketball program spent years wandering through the wilderness.
It was Sean Sutton, as both a solid player and excellent assistant coach, who helped enormously to restore OSU's long-dormant national reputation. True, he's been part of teams that ONLY made it to two Final Fours, but didn't win national titles.
If you think winning a national championship in 1946 was as difficult as it's been during Sutton's time at OSU, you're either out of touch with reality or hell-bent on getting him fired.
Gundy, meanwhile, did not take over a program that was destitute of success. The Cowboys had been to three consecutive bowl games when he was promoted to replace Les Miles.
And then there's the misconception that Holder hired Gundy, but not Sutton. And Holder wants coaches who are "his guys."
There is absolutely no doubt that Gundy is Holder's favorite guy. But Harry Birdwell was AD when Gundy was tapped to replace Miles.
Holder did the right thing when he stepped in during that second season and implored fans to give a Gundy five-year chance to prove himself.
The conventional wisdom is that OSU's recent success will force a reluctant Holder to give the embattled Sutton one more season.
I'm not buying that for a Still water second. If that were the case, why wouldn't Holder have already come out and confirmed it?
And to heck with one more season. Like Gundy, Sutton deserves the length of his contract to demonstrate if he can succeed at the Big 12 level.
Holder needs to speak up ASAP to stave off the negative recruiting other coaches are using big time against Sutton and OSU.
Yes, I know the majority of high school recruiting happens in the summer. But junior college recruiting is going on right now.
And Sutton's effort to sign a player from the junior college ranks, who will give OSU a badly needed dominant inside presence next season, has been severely handcuffed by the uncertainty about the coach's future.
Look, when you get down to it, fairness is what this is about. Just treat Sutton with the same amount of fairness afforded Gundy.
If Holder doesn't want to speak up now, how about some members of OSU's Board of Regents demonstrating they are more than mere figureheads? And an encouraging word from incoming president Burns Hargis would also be welcomed.
Or is the prevailing and growing perception about OSU true? Is it really only Holder and mega-donor Boone Pickens who truly run OSU?
Those sounds of silence coming from OSU's perceived movers and shakers would seem to scream that it's a fact.