Thursday’s news that the men’s gym at Arkansas’ basketball center will be named for Eddie Sutton actually sounds about right for a coach that did an awful lot of teaching at practice.
A resolution submitted by chancellor Joseph Steinmetz to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees on Thursday was adopted at a meeting in Little Rock.
“It is fitting that he be honored in this way for his contributions to our program,” athletics director Hunter Yurachek said in a press release after the meeting. “Coach Sutton helped transform the way our state thought about college basketball and provided Razorback fans with countless memories.”
When Sutton came to the Razorbacks in 1974 he wasn’t a big name and basketball wasn’t that big of a deal in Fayetteville. Barnhill Arena was, well, basically a half-step above a barn with a floor on top of a sawdust base.
The Hogs’ job wasn’t exactly a destination job and most folks didn’t have a clue who Eddie Sutton was.
He set about changing all of that and did it with what is, in retrospect, lightning speed.
In his third season the Hogs went 26-2, but surprisingly lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Wake Forest. Most fans weren’t that upset because that was their first trip to the big dance in so long most couldn’t recall the last one.
Arkansas made it to the Final Four the next year and came within a blown call against Larry Bird and Indiana State the next year of getting there.
Sutton also stumped across the state, selling his program to the rank-and-file fans. Also the media, regardless of their experience level. He spent about 45 minutes with a 16-year-old high school kid explaining basketball and his vision in a hot gym in Warren just a few months after he was hired.
Maybe more importantly he actually remembered that a few years later when I was covering the team on a daily basis.
Sutton’s teams won at a 77.5 percent clip, which was only the highest winning percentage in the history of the old Southwest Conference.
Nolan Richardson’s name is going on the court at Bud Walton Arena, which is fitting. Sutton’s name is on a banner there, but he never coached a game in that facility.
But without Sutton’s foundation it is not a stretch to say Richardson probably wouldn’t have even been at Arkansas to take the program to the pinnacle of college basketball in 1994.
Sutton spent his time in Barnhill, which he got revamped along with athletics director Frank Broyles within five years of taking the job.
Sutton’s name on the basketball gym is actually a perfect spot. Watching him at a Razorbacks’ practice was educational even for young media folks who got to sit around and watch.
It wasn’t unusual for assistants Pat Foster and Gene Keady to wander over and explain what was going on. It was educational to watch him in practice spend 15 minutes going over the nuances of alignment in man defense in excruciating detail down to placement of feet and hands.
Yeah, putting Eddie’s name on the practice gym is the perfect fit.
