andyokstate
01-03-2008, 10:37 AM
Wow.
Link to article (http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/10557128)
Sutton, or Mr. 800 is back, but he smells rotten
Gregg Doyel Jan. 3, 2008
By Gregg Doyel
CBSSports.com National Columnist
Tell Gregg your opinion!
Eddie Sutton is back in coaching, and I don't like it. I don't like any of it, from the bogus search firm that made it happen to the naïve athletics director who let it happen to the selfish old coach who ruthlessly wanted it to happen.
Sutton is the interim coach at the University of San Francisco for one reason, and one reason only. And it's not for the kids. Nor is it for the school. It's not even for the coaching profession. He's doing it for No. 1, or rather, for another number: 800. Sutton finished his career at Oklahoma State with 798 wins, felled by his relapse with alcohol, but he found a sucker in San Francisco willing to give him two months to win those two games. Turns out the most selfish guy in college basketball isn't the ball hog at USC. It's the ball coach at USF.
San Francisco is employing Sutton, but we'd be giving USF athletics director Debra Gore-Mann way too much credit to say she hired Sutton. She didn't. The hustling Pump brothers, Dana and David, who have made quite a living by sucking the marrow from college basketball, hired their old buddy Sutton. San Francisco was merely the surrogate.
The Pumps aren't the problem with college basketball, but they're a pimple that needs to be popped. They've been a two-man conflict of interest for years, operating a huge youth basketball operation that sends players to college programs every year -- while also buying coaches' Final Four tickets and charging Division I schools money to advise their coaching searches. Over the years the NCAA has helplessly watched the Pumps consolidate their power by working in college athletics' enormous gray area.
This latest Pump production is one of the grayest things I've ever seen. They've been longtime buddies with Sutton, who told them he was ready to get back into coaching. The Pumps went to work, looking for somebody friendly enough -- or inept enough -- to fall for their line of crap. They found it in Gore-Mann, who played basketball at Stanford but has spent most of her career in the private sector. She's a business whiz, apparently, but she embodies the difference between intellect and common sense.
I sort of feel sorry for Gore-Mann, who undermines this bizarre coaching transition every time she opens her mouth. She hasn't gotten her story straight yet, telling various media outlets that USF coach Jessie Evans approached her about taking a leave of absence and that her dalliance with Sutton came together in a matter of hours -- all on Dec. 26 -- when the reality is that Sutton was spotted at the USF-Long Beach State game on Dec. 18. At the time Sutton was living in Oklahoma. Why was he in Long Beach eight days before Jessie Evans decided, on his own, that he needed a leave of absence? Good question. Maybe Sutton went out for milk and made a wrong turn at Albuquerque.
This is one hell of a way for Sutton to finish his career -- with a two-handed shove into Jessie Evans' back. But then, this is probably the perfect way for Sutton to go. His career has seen everything else (everything except an NCAA title). He took four different schools to the NCAA Tournament. He took two of them to the Final Four. He was forced out at Kentucky after the Chris Mills recruiting scandal. He accepted a convicted felon, JamesOn Curry, at Oklahoma State, after Curry was busted selling marijuana in a high school bathroom. He won 798 games. He took a medical leave of absence at OSU after being cited for DUI in February 2006, two wins short of joining Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Jim Phelan in the 800-win club.
Twenty months after seeking treatment for a second time for alcoholism, Sutton wanted back in. The Pumps wanted to help him. The athletics director at San Francisco wanted to accommodate her friends, the Pumps.
The AD hired Sutton over the phone, though it's a mystery what he could have possibly said to impress her. He didn't know anything about the current USF roster. He'd never been to the USF campus. Ten bucks says he couldn't have named every school in the West Coast Conference, assuming he knew San Francisco was a member.
Throw it all together, and you've got an unholy San Francisco marriage. The honeymoon has been hell, too. Sutton was introduced to his new team in Utah, one day before their game -- Sutton's first game -- at Weber State. They lost. Three days later they lost at Utah Valley State.
The Dons (4-10) were lousy under Evans, but two of their four wins came earlier this season against those same two teams, Weber State and Utah Valley State. Then again, for those earlier games the San Francisco coach actually knew his players' names.
Sutton and his new team have at least 16 more games together. The Dons are so bad, and their new coach was so poorly chosen, that there's a chance Sutton won't be able to get the two wins he needs to reach 800.
I can dream, anyway.
Link to article (http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/10557128)
Sutton, or Mr. 800 is back, but he smells rotten
Gregg Doyel Jan. 3, 2008
By Gregg Doyel
CBSSports.com National Columnist
Tell Gregg your opinion!
Eddie Sutton is back in coaching, and I don't like it. I don't like any of it, from the bogus search firm that made it happen to the naïve athletics director who let it happen to the selfish old coach who ruthlessly wanted it to happen.
Sutton is the interim coach at the University of San Francisco for one reason, and one reason only. And it's not for the kids. Nor is it for the school. It's not even for the coaching profession. He's doing it for No. 1, or rather, for another number: 800. Sutton finished his career at Oklahoma State with 798 wins, felled by his relapse with alcohol, but he found a sucker in San Francisco willing to give him two months to win those two games. Turns out the most selfish guy in college basketball isn't the ball hog at USC. It's the ball coach at USF.
San Francisco is employing Sutton, but we'd be giving USF athletics director Debra Gore-Mann way too much credit to say she hired Sutton. She didn't. The hustling Pump brothers, Dana and David, who have made quite a living by sucking the marrow from college basketball, hired their old buddy Sutton. San Francisco was merely the surrogate.
The Pumps aren't the problem with college basketball, but they're a pimple that needs to be popped. They've been a two-man conflict of interest for years, operating a huge youth basketball operation that sends players to college programs every year -- while also buying coaches' Final Four tickets and charging Division I schools money to advise their coaching searches. Over the years the NCAA has helplessly watched the Pumps consolidate their power by working in college athletics' enormous gray area.
This latest Pump production is one of the grayest things I've ever seen. They've been longtime buddies with Sutton, who told them he was ready to get back into coaching. The Pumps went to work, looking for somebody friendly enough -- or inept enough -- to fall for their line of crap. They found it in Gore-Mann, who played basketball at Stanford but has spent most of her career in the private sector. She's a business whiz, apparently, but she embodies the difference between intellect and common sense.
I sort of feel sorry for Gore-Mann, who undermines this bizarre coaching transition every time she opens her mouth. She hasn't gotten her story straight yet, telling various media outlets that USF coach Jessie Evans approached her about taking a leave of absence and that her dalliance with Sutton came together in a matter of hours -- all on Dec. 26 -- when the reality is that Sutton was spotted at the USF-Long Beach State game on Dec. 18. At the time Sutton was living in Oklahoma. Why was he in Long Beach eight days before Jessie Evans decided, on his own, that he needed a leave of absence? Good question. Maybe Sutton went out for milk and made a wrong turn at Albuquerque.
This is one hell of a way for Sutton to finish his career -- with a two-handed shove into Jessie Evans' back. But then, this is probably the perfect way for Sutton to go. His career has seen everything else (everything except an NCAA title). He took four different schools to the NCAA Tournament. He took two of them to the Final Four. He was forced out at Kentucky after the Chris Mills recruiting scandal. He accepted a convicted felon, JamesOn Curry, at Oklahoma State, after Curry was busted selling marijuana in a high school bathroom. He won 798 games. He took a medical leave of absence at OSU after being cited for DUI in February 2006, two wins short of joining Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Jim Phelan in the 800-win club.
Twenty months after seeking treatment for a second time for alcoholism, Sutton wanted back in. The Pumps wanted to help him. The athletics director at San Francisco wanted to accommodate her friends, the Pumps.
The AD hired Sutton over the phone, though it's a mystery what he could have possibly said to impress her. He didn't know anything about the current USF roster. He'd never been to the USF campus. Ten bucks says he couldn't have named every school in the West Coast Conference, assuming he knew San Francisco was a member.
Throw it all together, and you've got an unholy San Francisco marriage. The honeymoon has been hell, too. Sutton was introduced to his new team in Utah, one day before their game -- Sutton's first game -- at Weber State. They lost. Three days later they lost at Utah Valley State.
The Dons (4-10) were lousy under Evans, but two of their four wins came earlier this season against those same two teams, Weber State and Utah Valley State. Then again, for those earlier games the San Francisco coach actually knew his players' names.
Sutton and his new team have at least 16 more games together. The Dons are so bad, and their new coach was so poorly chosen, that there's a chance Sutton won't be able to get the two wins he needs to reach 800.
I can dream, anyway.