Sutton Is Hired as Coach at Kentucky

Eddie Sutton, saying he couldn’t have left Arkansas for any other job, was hired Tuesday to succeed Joe B. Hall as basketball coach at the University of Kentucky.

Sutton, who took Arkansas from the basement to the top of the Southwest Conference, brought his own college coach, the legendary Henry Iba, along for the announcement.

Iba, who coached Sutton at Oklahoma State and led three U.S. Olympic teams, said he knows Sutton as well as he knew Adolph Rupp, the man who left college basketball’s winningest program to Hall in 1972.

Sutton wore a Wildcat tie provided by Cliff Hagan, Kentucky’s athletic director.

“When you think about basketball, that’s Kentucky,” Sutton said, noting that he grew up in Kansas listening to Kentucky games on the radio. “It’s the only job I’d leave the University of Arkansas for.

“When (Kentucky President Otis Singletary) called me, believe me, I would have crawled all the way to Lexington,” he said. “Fortunately, I was already here for the Final Four.”

Sutton, 49, went to Arkansas in 1975, after five years at Creighton, and immediately turned around the Razorback program.

Arkansas went 17-9 and 19-9, then began a nine-year stretch of 20-win seasons. The Razorbacks have made nine straight trips to the NCAA tournament and qualified for the Final Four in 1978.

It was Kentucky’s national champions who eliminated the 32-4 Razorbacks in the semifinals in St. Louis that year, 64-59. The schools haven’t played since.

As Singletary introduced Sutton to reporters, Kentucky administrators and trustees, and members of the Athletics Association board, Wildcat players Roger Harden and Bret Bearup stood grinning in the back of the room.

Sutton later met with the team at Wildcat Lodge.

After hearing of Sutton’s appointment, Kentucky star Kenny Walker, the Southeastern Conference player of the year, said he would be back for his senior season.

Hall, 56, who resigned March 22, the night the Wildcats were eliminated from the NCAA tournament by St. John’s, did not attend the news conference, but he issued a statement approving the choice.

Sutton said that during a brief meeting before the news conference, Hall said, “I was hoping that you’d be our next coach.”

In a prepared statement, Hall said: “In stepping down, I didn’t want to let the program down. But with Eddie, I see nothing but great days ahead.

“I’ve known Eddie ever since I’ve been in coaching, and I respect him as an excellent teacher of the game and as an excellent developer of young men. With the naming of Eddie Sutton, this is a great day for Kentucky basketball.”

Sutton’s resignation at Arkansas was announced in Fayetteville earlier in the day.

Sutton said he was offered, and accepted, the job before Monday night’s NCAA championship game between Villanova and Georgetown.

“If you had seen the smile on my face last night at the game, you would have known. This is the No. 1 coaching job in America, and that includes the NBA,” Sutton said. “All my life, I have grown to the point where this is where I belong. This is where I want to be.”

Some other prominent coaches apparently felt otherwise. Arizona’s Lute Olson, Mississippi State’s Bob Boyd and former Kentucky assistant Dick Parsons all pulled their names from consideration Sunday and Monday. That left Lee Rose of South Florida and Sutton, who said he hadn’t been contacted until Monday.

“They called me at the hotel,” he said. “I returned their call.”

Sutton said that Leonard Hamilton would remain as his assistant coach.