Sutton takes over at San Francisco

Eddie Sutton is coming out of retirement to replace Jessie Evans as San Francisco’s basketball coach, and will have a shot at 800 wins after all.

San Francisco announced Wednesday night that Evans was taking “a leave of absence” for the rest of the season and that Sutton, 71, would take over the Dons on an interim basis.

Sutton’s first game will be Friday night at Weber State.

Sutton retired as Oklahoma State’s coach after the 2005-06 season. He has 798 victories in 36 seasons as a Division I coach at Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State.

The key figures who brokered the arrangement to bring Sutton to San Francisco were Dana and David Pump, the San Fernando Valley brothers who operate a firm called ChampSearch that assists schools when they hire coaches.

Texas Tech Coach Bob Knight was reprimanded by the Big 12 Conference for comments he made about officiating after a loss to New Mexico this month.