Sutton Goes Right to Work at Kentucky

Eddie Sutton, promising that national championships will be a top priority, hit the recruiting trail Wednesday, his first full day as Kentucky basketball coach.

Sutton, who quit at Arkansas just before his appointment on Tuesday, met with the press and then flew to Laurel, Miss., with assistant coach Leonard Hamilton, hoping to woo high school star Kenny Payne.

“We’re going to try and win a few national championships while I’m here,” Sutton said. “I believe the system here will allow us to be competitive every year for the national title.”

In a tribute to the late Adolph Rupp, who made Kentucky a power, Sutton wore a brown suit and brown tie imprinted with Wildcats. He joked about the legendary pressures Kentucky fans put on college basketball’s winningest program and said he can’t wait to get 23,000 people screaming for the Wildcats in Rupp Arena.

“Most coaches who are successful put pressure on themselves. They expect to win and they want to win,” Sutton said. “I guess I’ll get to feeling like a state park -- everybody owns a piece of me. ...

“And if we don’t win, I’ll feel like I let the whole state down. But we’re not going to win every ball game.”

Sutton said he hoped to sell Kentucky to two or three prep seniors by the April 10 signing date.

“Sometimes when you go in with a new position, it gives you an advantage, and sometimes it’s a disadvantage,” he said. “But the University of Kentucky, believe me, can recruit anywhere in the country.”

However, Sutton promised not to try to steal away any of the players he had been recruiting a week ago for the Razorbacks.

“I spent Arkansas money -- they ought to go to Arkansas,” he said.

After recruiting, he said, he wants to meet individually with the returning players, visit with predecessor Joe B. Hall and settle down in Lexington. Among the priorities is to call Irving Thomas of Miami, the lone player Kentucky signed last fall.

“Leonard has given me a whole list of things to do,” Sutton said. “I’m looking forward to meeting with Joe. I have great respect for Coach Hall and I believe he’ll help me in any way he can. I will ask his advice -- what can I do to guarantee that we’re going to have a winner.

“I’m sure he’ll have some ideas, and I’m going to listen.”

Meanwhile, he said, his sons went to class in Fayetteville, Ark., Wednesday sporting blue and white Kentucky T-shirts.

Sutton endorsed the Louisville-Kentucky series, saying “that game should be played,” and promised Wildcat fans a lot of man-to-man defense.

And he hopes he can at least match Hall’s one NCAA title, if not Rupp’s four.

“We’re going to try to win some national championships. That’s one of our goals before the season every year,” Sutton said, listing a Southeastern Conference title, at least 20 victories, an NCAA bid and then the title.

“That’s why I came here. We might have won a national championship at Arkansas,” he said, recalling that Hall’s 1978 champions beat the Razorbacks in the NCAA semifinals. “Here, I believe the personnel will be better than we ever had at Arkansas. The system should allow us to be competitive every year for the national title.”