andyokstate
01-21-2010, 10:11 AM
A friend and I were talking and wondered what happened to Randy Rutherford. I did a quick search and found that he's the basketball coach at Murray St. Here's a recent article about him from the TW.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/OSU/article.aspx?subjectid=93&articleid=20091228_216_B1_Former190104
http://www.tulsaworld.com/articleimages/2009/20091228_rutherford.jpg
Ex-OSU hoops star pays it forward as coach
by: JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Monday, December 28, 2009
12/28/2009 4:29:17 AM
Go to Jimmie Tramel's Blog
Curious about whatever became of former Oklahoma State basketball player and ex-Central High School coach Randy Rutherford?
He's playing the Bear Bryant role in the Tishomingo version of The Junction Boys.
Refresher course: In 1954, Bryant was a freshly hired Texas A&M football coach. He put his players through a torturous preseason camp in Junction, Texas, and only those who survived the culling got to play for the Aggies. The Junction Boys became the subject of a book and an ESPN movie.
Rutherford is a first-year basketball coach at Murray State College. He said only two of the 16 players who suited up for the Tishomingo junior college last season are still on the team.
Rutherford and his assistant, former OSU guard Joe Adkins, hustled in new recruits, but an injury here and a class-skipper there, left the Aggies with five scholarship players (none over 6-foot-6) and two walk-ons for much of the fall semester. Lack of size has been a killer. Opponents have cashed put-back baskets to win close games, according to Rutherford.
But Rutherford still believes this is a feel-good story and here's why: The Aggies (8-8) already have won two more games than they did last season.
One of Rutherford's first acts in his new job was a successful bluff.
Holding sheets of paper, Rutherford gathered all his players around and said, "Before I read this, I want to know who all went to class, and you better not lie because I've got it right here."
The papers were blank.
"You know kids. They tell on themselves," Rutherford said.
But Rutherford wasn't bluffing when he told players to go to class, or else.
"Academics was the biggest deal," Rutherford said, citing low grade point averages last season.
"I told them that shows me you weren't here to work. You guys were here for a free lunch. The free lunches are over. You've got to earn your scholarship on and off the court and go to school and get your degree. A lot of those kids didn't want to do that, I guess."
Rutherford was on OSU's s
taff under Eddie Sutton and Sean Sutton before venturing out on his own to lead Central to a state tournament trip last season. Experiences at Central and Murray State have convinced Rutherford that coaching is his calling. He said it's gratifying to teach young men how to be productive and responsible in the real world.
Honestly, don't you wince when coaches say that because it sounds like a bunch of hooey?
It's easier to believe it when Rutherford says it because he used to be the kid who needed a butt-kicking.
Rutherford said his mother raised six always-in-trouble sons in Broken Bow. They lived near a church that, unfortunately, didn't have ball-proof windows.
"Come Sunday, there are going to be four or five baseballs in there and everybody knew who did it," he said. "The Rutherford boys have been out there playing again."
Basketball took Rutherford to junior college and to OSU.
He avoided classrooms during his redshirt year at OSU and his grades cratered. Eddie Sutton and then-OSU assistant Bill Self lowered the boom. Now Rutherford is appreciative and wants to pay the favor forward.
"I know, for me, not having a father figure growing up, finding a coach that was going to teach you the right way — not only the responsibility of being a basketball player, but also teaching you about life — was very important."
Aside from turning boys into men, coaches have another responsibility (hint: there's a reason gyms have scoreboards). Rutherford believes he can be competitive with his skeleton crew of players, all from Oklahoma.
Among the Aggies' Division I hopefuls: Sophomore June Carter, a 6-foot-6 post player from Millwood, averages a double-double, getting points inside and outside. Freshman BayShon Payne of Douglass is a two-guard who can really shoot, according to Rutherford. Sophomore point guard and team leader Laron Buggs is one of three Central alums on the roster, joining James Harris and Orsbon Hawkins.
Rutherford is hoping for good MRI news on 6-6 Putnam City alum Brandon Jackson, a former University of Tulsa point guard signee who can man the four position for the Aggies if he can overcome a knee problem. If Jackson is healthy enough to go all-out, maybe he can look forward to a dose of group punishment. If Rutherford catches anyone missing class, everyone runs.
"There are no excuses," Rutherford said. "Rules are rules. If you want to keep trying me, we'll just keep running. I tell them I have no problem just sitting over here on the sideline saying 'go, go, go, go.'
"I think a couple of them figured it out the hard way, but now they kind of see that, hey, this is just the way it is."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/OSU/article.aspx?subjectid=93&articleid=20091228_216_B1_Former190104
http://www.tulsaworld.com/articleimages/2009/20091228_rutherford.jpg
Ex-OSU hoops star pays it forward as coach
by: JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Monday, December 28, 2009
12/28/2009 4:29:17 AM
Go to Jimmie Tramel's Blog
Curious about whatever became of former Oklahoma State basketball player and ex-Central High School coach Randy Rutherford?
He's playing the Bear Bryant role in the Tishomingo version of The Junction Boys.
Refresher course: In 1954, Bryant was a freshly hired Texas A&M football coach. He put his players through a torturous preseason camp in Junction, Texas, and only those who survived the culling got to play for the Aggies. The Junction Boys became the subject of a book and an ESPN movie.
Rutherford is a first-year basketball coach at Murray State College. He said only two of the 16 players who suited up for the Tishomingo junior college last season are still on the team.
Rutherford and his assistant, former OSU guard Joe Adkins, hustled in new recruits, but an injury here and a class-skipper there, left the Aggies with five scholarship players (none over 6-foot-6) and two walk-ons for much of the fall semester. Lack of size has been a killer. Opponents have cashed put-back baskets to win close games, according to Rutherford.
But Rutherford still believes this is a feel-good story and here's why: The Aggies (8-8) already have won two more games than they did last season.
One of Rutherford's first acts in his new job was a successful bluff.
Holding sheets of paper, Rutherford gathered all his players around and said, "Before I read this, I want to know who all went to class, and you better not lie because I've got it right here."
The papers were blank.
"You know kids. They tell on themselves," Rutherford said.
But Rutherford wasn't bluffing when he told players to go to class, or else.
"Academics was the biggest deal," Rutherford said, citing low grade point averages last season.
"I told them that shows me you weren't here to work. You guys were here for a free lunch. The free lunches are over. You've got to earn your scholarship on and off the court and go to school and get your degree. A lot of those kids didn't want to do that, I guess."
Rutherford was on OSU's s
taff under Eddie Sutton and Sean Sutton before venturing out on his own to lead Central to a state tournament trip last season. Experiences at Central and Murray State have convinced Rutherford that coaching is his calling. He said it's gratifying to teach young men how to be productive and responsible in the real world.
Honestly, don't you wince when coaches say that because it sounds like a bunch of hooey?
It's easier to believe it when Rutherford says it because he used to be the kid who needed a butt-kicking.
Rutherford said his mother raised six always-in-trouble sons in Broken Bow. They lived near a church that, unfortunately, didn't have ball-proof windows.
"Come Sunday, there are going to be four or five baseballs in there and everybody knew who did it," he said. "The Rutherford boys have been out there playing again."
Basketball took Rutherford to junior college and to OSU.
He avoided classrooms during his redshirt year at OSU and his grades cratered. Eddie Sutton and then-OSU assistant Bill Self lowered the boom. Now Rutherford is appreciative and wants to pay the favor forward.
"I know, for me, not having a father figure growing up, finding a coach that was going to teach you the right way — not only the responsibility of being a basketball player, but also teaching you about life — was very important."
Aside from turning boys into men, coaches have another responsibility (hint: there's a reason gyms have scoreboards). Rutherford believes he can be competitive with his skeleton crew of players, all from Oklahoma.
Among the Aggies' Division I hopefuls: Sophomore June Carter, a 6-foot-6 post player from Millwood, averages a double-double, getting points inside and outside. Freshman BayShon Payne of Douglass is a two-guard who can really shoot, according to Rutherford. Sophomore point guard and team leader Laron Buggs is one of three Central alums on the roster, joining James Harris and Orsbon Hawkins.
Rutherford is hoping for good MRI news on 6-6 Putnam City alum Brandon Jackson, a former University of Tulsa point guard signee who can man the four position for the Aggies if he can overcome a knee problem. If Jackson is healthy enough to go all-out, maybe he can look forward to a dose of group punishment. If Rutherford catches anyone missing class, everyone runs.
"There are no excuses," Rutherford said. "Rules are rules. If you want to keep trying me, we'll just keep running. I tell them I have no problem just sitting over here on the sideline saying 'go, go, go, go.'
"I think a couple of them figured it out the hard way, but now they kind of see that, hey, this is just the way it is."