Eddie Sutton

The two underclassmen struggled to fill the talent vacuum on the court and the Wildcats finished with a losing record of 13–19, the team's first losing full-season record since 1927.

The scandal broke when it was alleged that Emery Worldwide employees discovered $1,000 in cash in an envelope Kentucky assistant coach Dwane Casey supposedly sent to Mills' father.

It was later shown that Casey was uninvolved in the Emery envelope incident.

Edward Eugene Sutton (March 12, 1936 – May 23, 2020) was an American college basketball coach.

A native of Bucklin, Kansas, Sutton played college basketball at Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State) and was a head coach at the high school, junior college, and college levels spanning six decades.

After beginning his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State under Henry Iba, Sutton was a successful head coach at Tulsa Central High School and the College of Southern Idaho.

After graduating from Bucklin High School in 1954, Sutton enrolled at what was then Oklahoma A&M College, which became Oklahoma State University–Stillwater in 1957.

At Oklahoma A&M/State, Sutton played at guard for the Cowboys basketball team from 1955 to 1958 under head coach Henry Iba.

In his junior season of 1956–57, Sutton led the Oklahoma A&M Cowboys in free throw percentage at .843.

As a senior in 1957–58, Sutton averaged 8.3 points and was part of a team that qualified for the NCAA tournament.

Sutton graduated from Oklahoma State with a bachelor's degree in 1958.

Sutton began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for Iba at Oklahoma State in the 1958–59 school year before completing his master's degree in 1959.

Inheriting an Arkansas Razorbacks program that had losing records in three of the last four seasons and no postseason appearances since 1958, Sutton compiled a record of 260-75 from 1974 to 1985, including five Southwest Conference regular season championships, nine NCAA Tournament appearances, and a Final Four appearance in 1978.

His success led Arkansas to expand its home basketball venue, Barnhill Arena, from 5,200 seats to 9,000.

Sutton also coached a trio of basketball players, all from the state of Arkansas, known as "The Triplets": Ron Brewer, Marvin Delph, and Sidney Moncrief.

From 1959 to 1966, Sutton was head varsity basketball coach at Tulsa Central High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he had a cumulative record of 119–51.

Moving up to the junior college level, Sutton became the first head coach at the College of Southern Idaho from 1966 to 1969, with a cumulative 83–14 record.

Sutton began coaching at the NCAA level in 1969 at Creighton University, followed by Arkansas from 1974 to 1985, Kentucky from 1985 to 1989, and Oklahoma State from 1990 to 2006.

From 1969 to 1974, Sutton was head coach at Creighton University, where he inherited a Bluejays program that had three consecutive losing seasons and led them to five consecutive winning seasons, including a 23–7 record and NCAA tournament appearance in the 1973–74 season.

In 1974, Sutton became head coach at the University of Arkansas.

From 1977 to 2005, Sutton's teams appeared in all but two NCAA Tournaments.

Arkansas finished the 1983–84 season with a 23–7 record and no. 8 AP Poll ranking.

Number 2 seed Arkansas lost to number 7 seed Virginia 53–51 in overtime in the NCAA tournament.

On February 12, 1984, Arkansas had a 65–64 upset win over an undefeated, no. 1 North Carolina team that featured Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins and Brad Daugherty.

The game took place at the Pine Bluff Convention Center in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and NBC Sports televised the game nationally.

In Sutton's final season as head coach in 1984–85, Arkansas went 22–13 and qualified for the second round of the NCAA tournament.

On April 2, 1985, the University of Kentucky hired Sutton as head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats to replace Joe B. Hall.

In a prepared statement, Hall said: "...with Eddie, I see nothing but great days ahead."

He coached the Wildcats for four years, leading them to the Elite Eight of the 1986 NCAA tournament.

Two seasons later, Sutton and the 25–5 Wildcats captured their 37th SEC title (which was later vacated by the SEC) and were ranked as the No. 6 college basketball team in the nation by the Associated Press and UPI before being upset as the No. 2 seed in the Southeast Regional by Villanova in the 1988 NCAA tournament.

Sutton's tenure at Kentucky ended at the close of the 1988–89 season after a scandal and a losing record tarnished the school's basketball program.

Kentucky entered the 1988–89 season lacking significant talent in their lineup.

The previous season's offensive and defensive stars Ed Davender, Rob Lock and Winston Bennett had all graduated from school, while All-SEC sophomore Rex Chapman left school early to enter the 1988 NBA draft.

Additionally, sophomore standout Eric Manuel was suspected of cheating on his college entrance exam and voluntarily agreed to sit out until the investigation was finished.

Potential star recruit Shawn Kemp transferred out of Kentucky after signing with the school early that year.

As it turned out, Manuel didn't play a single game as the investigation dragged through the entire season, essentially placing the Wildcats in the hands of inexperienced sophomore LeRon Ellis and freshman Chris Mills.

For part of the 2007–08 season, Sutton was interim head coach at San Francisco.

During his college coaching career, Sutton is one of only eight NCAA Division I coaches to have had more than 800 career wins.

Sutton was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020.

Sutton was born in Bucklin, Kansas.